There was a short window in the late 1970’s when Hawaiian music was mixed into psychedelic soul, and disco.
Now a few of those artists are making a comeback thanks to a local DJ and blogger. In 2010 Roger Bong began collecting and cataloging these relatively unknown artists. His project called “Aloha Got Soul” has grown in to a record label, re-releasing albums by Greenwood, Nohelani Cypriano and Mike Lundy. The releases have become a hot item for record collectors around the world, and are being picked up by and played by notable record collectors and DJ’s like The BBC’s Giles Peterson.
They also host a series of monthly parties entitled “Soul-time in Hawaii” which have spun out sister parties in London and Chicago.
A UK based record label called “Strut” recently released a compilation curated by Bong. He sat down with HPR’s Nick Yee to discuss the project.
More information can be found at Aloha Got Soul’s Website.
Listen to a preview mix of the Strut compilation.
Buy the album from Bandcamp, and other releases from Aloha Got Soul
Check out The Vinyl Factory’s short documentary on record digging in Hawai‘i:
