Po'okela Chants

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Free Music Notes for Po'okela Chants

Free Music Review: Discover your thirst for more Hawaiian music here
Hit: 5 Stars

For every tradition of music, there are musicians who make it sound contemporary and fresh again. Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu is one of those. If you think hula is boring, or you flee from those tacky compilations played at mock Luau cookouts, you should check this out.

More than half of the tracks on this CD are pretty serious chanting and drummimg. They draw on traditional lyrics, persons, and themes. Chanting as a word does not capture the range of things loud male voices can do. This CD has as much shouting out and heavy breathing as a rap. One track is whimsical: He Mele No Ka'uhinilele, the grasshopper song, our favorite song, is accompanied by acoustic guitar and slow drums. Another, Keaomelemele, is a keening dirge with heavy synth washes and reverb effects, and one of the few songs with female accompaniment (at least I think that's a female.) You will be able to get your head around these tracks more quickly than the others. But give them all time to grow on you, and work at finding out what the songs mean.

For my wife and I, this has become our favorite album. When she is happy, she mumbles Hawaiian lyrics from it and smiles at me. Maybe we even learn a little vocabulary by now. We have actually lost our original copy from taking it on so many trips.

Doubtless Ho'omalu received a lot of attention after the Disney tracks (in Lilo and Stitch). This is a good thing. However, those were not satisfying like this first album, and those tracks have not been played at our home since the day we played it seven times while stuck in a car wash (approximating an afternoon driving slowly around Kilauea watching for nene.) It is excellent news that Ho'omalu has finished another original album beyond this one. Also it seems that I get my other wish, as more music by Kamehameha Schools children is in distribution!

Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu deserves to be heard. If you know nothing about Hawaiian music, this CD will make you interested.

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