Island Mele
Cool Rush and Kihei-based Play It Loud Productions make an impressive statement with this new release as band member Brian Cabatu delivers a full album of original Jawaiian music. Cabatu utilizes a variety of rhythms and melodic ideas within the basic reggae format. His simple pop songs work well, too. "With You"
Cool Rush
Play It Loud ProductionsCabatu and vocalist Jacob DeLa Nux share the credit for vocal arrangements that include all the popular pseudo-Jamaican clichés. DeLa Nux and Sarahlea Gamiao take turns as lead vocalists; Gamiao's voice extends the band's range and adds a woman's perspective. "Take Me Away," recorded with Rod Tsuhako providing the backing tracks, shows that she can handle smooth urban grooves as well as Jawaiian material.
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Move On
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(808) 357-3057
Reality -- the duo of Marja Apisaloma and Shivon Ines -- was easily Hawaii's most promising female pop duo of the late 1990s and seemed destined for bigger things. They were both attractive and articulate, as well as prolific songwriters, and Apisaloma could rap in a pseudo-Jamaican accent. With producer/engineer Bob St. John as their studio mentor, they released two albums of commercial reggae-lite and pop music before fading from the scene. "Revisited"
Reality
Neos Productions"Revisited" isn't labeled or annotated as a retrospective, but brings back 12 songs first heard on those albums. Highlights include "Like The Rain," their original debut hit of '98, and "Once in a Blue Moon," a cut from their second album that proved they could sing mainstream rock, as well.
A pair of generic remakes show that the duo (Ines is now married and performing as Shivon Alexander) was best when interpreting fresh material. If all goes well, they'll team up again and come back with new songs.
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P.O. Box 4300, Mililani, HI 96789
Pidgin-speaking storyteller Bradajo got together with Glen Grant and Kit Ebersbach to create this entertaining collection of spooky tales with island themes. Grant is Hawaii's foremost conservator of "chicken skin" stories and most of Bradajo's tales are credited with being "inspired by" him. Ebersbach adds the needed sound effects that embellish Bradajo's narratives. "Supernatural Tales in Pidgin"
Bradajo
Self-releaseOne or two sound like the urban legends of the mainland. "Purple Blanket," for instance, is a local version of a story that was set to music years ago as "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)." Most of them, though, are uniquely Hawaiian tales of night marchers, haunted burial caves, folk heroes and, of course, Pele. Bradajo shares them all in a comfortable pidgin dialect that's a blend of Moe Keale and Kent Bowman's K.K. Ka'umanua character.
And, no, prior knowledge of either pidgin or Japanese obake (ghost) stories is necessary to enjoy them.
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See Record Reviews for some past reviews.
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.
