Stories — Releases

Last November we released (sort of) the long-awaited reissue of Mike Lundy's 1980 Hawaiian holy grail, The Rhythm Of Life. It was accepted with great reviews from critics and listeners worldwide—the title track made it onto Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Winners 2015 list, which broadcast in December. "The crown jewels of Hawaiian funk, from 1980 — with an open, upful ‘island sound’ attuned to the spaced-out, mystical vibe of classic, late-seventies Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz and co." —Honest Jon's, January 2016 The Rhythm Of Life on deck at Hungry Ear in January 2016. While many enjoyed listening to TROL streaming online...

We are extremely pleased to tell you that for that past 12 months we've been working with London's Strut Records on a compilation entitled Aloha Got Soul: Soul, AOR & Disco in Hawai‘i 1979-1985, and it hits stores worldwide in February 2016. Compiled by Roger Bong, the aptly-titled Aloha Got Soul comprises 16 tracks of inspired funk, disco, jazz and AOR recorded in Hawai‘i. The release is the first definitive compilation representing a vibrant and varied era of recordings, and we're hoping it shines a whole new light on the Hawaiian Islands’ not-so-distant music culture of the 1970s and 1980s....

Mike Lundy's The Rhythm Of Life is finally available again in its full glory: the nine-track quintessential Hawaiian funk/soul opus that has come to represent the birth of the Aloha Got Soul record label and the rebirth of Lundy's almost forgotten masterpiece. Here's a snippet from the liner notes which expresses my feelings for this special project: "There couldn’t have been a more perfect collaboration with which to launch the Aloha Got Soul label. Working with Mike has been a blessing. Coincidence has found us time after time along our journey. We share a mutual respect for each other’s honesty...

The premise behind every Aloha Got Soul release is to tell a story beyond the music. The story of Mike Lundy is mysterious, complex, and layered with good intentions. The story of this reissue project is marked by multiple coincidences throughout the process of rereleasing music from The Rhythm Of Life—so much so, in fact, that I've been told these aren't coincidences. This story was meant to be. A large part of the unfolding story of Mike Lundy's The Rhythm Of Life reissue project will be told in the liner notes of the LP release, due out November 28th, 2015....