Hawaii - Traditional Hula - Halau Hula Ka No'Eau

Advantages: big man, big voice, beautiful songs
Disadvantages: 'world music', not to everyone's taste

.... For a moment you might think you are listening to 'one man and his ukulele'. Very rarely will you find more than just those two ingredients in the songs. Does it matter? No, not at all. Most of the time you won't even realise that there are no other singers or instruments/orchestra. You will just concentrate on the warm voice that sings all these songs where you may not understand the lyrics. When he sings songs in his native tongue you can easily conjure up images of a Hollywood version on Hawaii with girls in hula skirts dancing on the beach. To be honest, the few songs on the album with full orchestration and background singers I feel are the weaker ones. It distracts from the actual beauty and simplicity of the rest of the songs and the voice of Israel. I un-ticked those songs so my mp3 player automatically skips over them. I will list all... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Some great classic tracks
Disadvantages: A couple of weak links

...there is a wonderful trumpet solo in the middle. “Little Sister” is an admission to a girl that Elvis used to date her little sister, but has now realised that the older girl is the one for him. There are real overtones of the “The Shadows” in this song, with the slide guitar being used to perfection. Elvis’ voice is somewhat masked by the instruments, but a great track nonetheless. “Rock-a-Hula Baby” was originally released as the B-side to “Can’t help falling in love with you” in 1961, and is one of Elvis’ more well known tracks, professing his love for a Hula girl. The song has a real Hawaiian feel throughout, with the maracas used as well as the bongos. “Bossa Nova Baby”, from 1963, is a story about a hard working man who wants to spend some time chilling our after a long day’s work, but his woman wants him to go dancing. The track... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Zeuhl music at it's finest!!
Disadvantages: None that i can think of!

...I've wrote reviews of other albums by Magma which are one of my favourite bands. So if you are not familiar on there background please check them out! Parts of this new and latest work by Magma can be heard on earlier works. Namely ' Inedits' and ' Kohntarkosz on BBC Londres 1974' . This is undoubtedly one of 'Magmas' finest albums ever. Hearkening back to there classic mid 70' period . I was astounded upon first listening to this one, as most of there more recent works were much more commercial and only hinted at there earlier classic ' Zeuhl ' style. What we have here though is Vanders ever present superb drums mixed with the interweaving complexities of bass , guitar , piano , synths and vocals. All in there greatest tradition. Very powerful stuff indeed . The first two tracks are much more melodic than the last one , being over... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful