“Guitar Stories”
Jim Kimo West
(Westernmost)

The Hawaiian tradition of ki hoalu, or slack key guitar, has been embraced by many musicians outside Hawaii. One of them is California guitarist Jim Kimo West, who combines slack key techniques with other styles of “world music” in this collection of nine original instrumental compositions.

He opens with a beautiful piece of slack key in its purest form: a single acoustic guitar. Almost all the songs that follow are more complicated in terms of the instrumentation. On some of them West plays several instruments, on others studio guests join him.

West shares his aloha for the various places and people who inspired him in the liner notes. He shows his commitment to the traditions of ki hoalu by including the tunings for each song as well.

Visit jimkimowest.com.

“Which Crazy Thing Happening Are You Guys Screaming About?”
Rats
(Hawaiian Express)

For everyone whose musical horizons extend back into the 20th century: Rats is not the English rock group of the 1960s, or the American group that recorded “The Rat’s Revenge” in 1965, or the SoCal garage punk group of the early 1980s. Nick Danger (vocals/guitar), Kat Guzman (bass/vocals) and Jon Ness (drums) are rising here and now out of Hawaii’s “underground” rock scene.

What are they screaming about? The minimalist liner notes don’t include lyrics, but with “One More Drink” Danger tells someone, “I’d rather suffer all alone than let you watch me fall,” and the title song proclaims, “All my friends are rats like me.” “Let’s Party” calls on Rats fans to turn up the volume “until the windows crack.”

The album runs less than 30 minutes, but it is intense. The Rats are ready for prime-time play.

Visit facebook.com/rats.hawaii.