“UKULELE HULA”
Herb Ohta Jr. (Neos Productions)
There’s an unmentioned note of irony in the title of this new album as ukulele master Herb Ohta Jr., explores several generations of songs popular with halau hula. The all-instrumental play list includes standards by Sol K. Bright and John Almeida, and standards-to-be by Keali‘i Reichel and Kawaikapuokalani Hewett.
The album is almost a solo performance; bassist Rodney Bejer can be heard faintly deep in the mix, and percussionist Salaam Tilman sits more prominently on “Laupahoehoe Hula.”
The irony has nothing to do with quality of Ohta’s performance in interpreting these melodies; it develops because hula, as a Hawaiian dance form, requires lyrics for the dancers to perform to.
Visit herbohtajr.com.
“FRACTURED”
Storm (Tin Idol Productions)
Just in time for our recent twin hurricane scares came Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning heavy metal rockers Storm — Sandy Storm Essman (vocals), Gerard K. Gonsalves (drums), Darren Soliven (bass) and Don Muller (guitars) — with this follow-up to their award-winning album, “Zodiac.” Not to jinx it, and who knows what may come out between now and the end of 2018, but the 12 originals here make them contenders again in 2019.
Hawaii is already familiar with “38 Minutes,” the band’s response to the nuclear false alarm in January; it was released as a single in August. Elsewhere in the collection Storm speaks as Hoku Award-winners with “H8ters Gonna H8” as they encourage anyone who encounters hate from jealous people to “keep your head up and follow your dreams.”
Most of the other songs address conventional metal-rock concerns — loneliness, misery, conspiracies, horror, death, and the threat of apocalyptic destruction. “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” sums things in up with vivid lyric images.
There is, however, a touch of dark comedy in a song titled “Technological Slavedom.” Essman asks Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant, to “call Storm.” When Storm has been located she tells Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant that she wants a guitar solo — and gets one.
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