Island Mele

By John Berger

"Keep It Comin'"

Ilona
Hobo House on the Hill

Ilona Irvine's second album for Roni "H-Diggler" Yurong's Hobo House organization takes her far beyond the limits of local Top 40-lite and Jawaiian pop, and signals her worthiness for national exposure. Irvine establishes the strength of her new commercial appeal with the first track, "Give It Up," featuring Chief Ragga, and maintains it through the next few songs. Soft and romantic or hard and self-assertive, she puts out all the right vibes.

Hobo House provides great material. Keo Wolford wrote all but two songs; "H-Diggler" and Ronnie Esteban did the instrumental arrangements, and Lawrence Yurong arranged the vocal tracks. There are no remakes at all, and there are several potential hits here that are equal in all respect to national releases now in play on Hawaii's urban-oriented radio stations. There's a light pop ballad or two for local consumption as well.

www.hobohouseonthehill.com

Mpeg Audio Clips: Give It Back featuring Chief Ragga Bad featuring Joevan Brown Keep It Comin' Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info

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"The Revolution"

Tiki Entertainment
Tiki Entertainment

A new Hawaii-based hip-hop organization introduces itself with this powerful preview of things to come. Most of the individual artists on this compilation have their own albums coming -- Spookahuna and Big Teeze get top billing on a list of 16 acts.

Teeze rates high in local music history as a member of the old Hi-Town DJs (the only Hawaii rappers to make one of the six major Billboard charts). He hits hard here with "808 Ho's," a song reminiscent of Ice-T's "99 Problems" and explicit enough to warrant a parental advisory warning.

The mood elsewhere ranges from romantic to "gangsta" as various artists expound on true love, their sexual prowess, marijuana and social problems in Hawaii. One track mocks another local rap organization, while another dismisses local pop remakes.

www.tikientertainment.com

Mpeg Audio Clips: 420 Let's Get Down Reminisce Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info

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"The Last Concert"

Rosemary Clooney with the Honolulu Symphony Pops
Concord Jazz

The Honolulu Symphony lucked into a great opportunity when Pops conductor Matt Catingub's professional relationship with Rosemary Clooney resulted in this album being recorded here last November (Clooney and Catingub are both Concord artists and had recorded together with his Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack as her backup band). It would be Clooney's last album -- she died this past summer -- and is thus of particular importance.

The album is a beautiful musical portrait of Clooney and a celebration of American standards. The program included several of Clooney's favorite songs and, in keeping with the somber spirit of a year ago, "God Bless America." Clooney's comments between songs add a sense of her vivacious personality.

www.concordrecords.com

Mpeg Audio Clips: Just In Time Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe You Go To My Head Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info

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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. Contact John Berger at jberger@starbulletin.com.