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Island Mele
Ano debuts with skill,
imaginationSEE ALSO: MAKAHA SONS
Fruit From the Tree
Ano (Ano Recording - no serial)ELEMENTS of acoustic rock, Celtic melodies, and European-American folk music are smoothly blended in Ano's impressive debut. Producer Dave Tucciarone shares credit with Ano members Kamuela and Ikaika Kahoano for skillfully blending live instruments and synthetics.
The songs are originals. The ambience changes dramatically when a moody urban style rap-rock number is followed by an untranslated Hawaiian song set to striking electronic tracks. Ano has imagination to spare and deserves a shot at national play, but the presentation would be more effective if the liner notes were legible.
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http://www.kahoano.com
E&S Hawaiian Band (Ehukai Productions - ES1001)THE influence of Kalapana is evident in places on this debut album by Jamie "E" Lee and Kelly "S" Scott. "In The Country" exemplifies that page in their songbook; a different version won them a spot on the "Homegrown '97" album.
E&S write and play mainstream pop as well. Both play guitar and percussion; Lee also plays keyboards and ukulele. James Kneubuhl (bass) and Pierre Grill (miscellaneous) fill in as needed. The collection ranges in style from contemporary tropical pop to light poignant love songs. "Tracy (What Can I Say)," "Eddy in San Jose" and "Hapa Haole Songs" are standouts.
Most of the rest are also well crafted although a few ignore basic pop music concepts of rhyme and meter.
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http://www.eandshawaiianband.com
Soulfree (Onipa'a - ORCD001)SOULFREE initially assays out as synthetic copybook acolytes of Big Mountain but there's more to this promising septet than that.
Singer Kaneala Makainai sometimes goes outside standard local reggae cliches as the main writer of Soulfree's Christian reggae hymns and reggae-beat love songs. Garret Lover shows insight and imagination as writer of "Paradise Child."
Guitar, bass, ukulele and percussion provide balance the synthetics. Soulfree should already be in high rotation on Hawaii's "island music" radio stations.
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No contact info.
See Record Reviews for some past reviews.
See Aloha Worldwide for locals living away.John Berger, who has covered the local
entertainment scene since 1972, writes reviews of recordings
produced by Hawaii artists. See the Star-Bulletin's Today
section on Fridays for the latest reviews.
