Stories

An excerpt of my interview with Richard Reb'll appears on Aquarium Drunkard, in anticipation of the new From These Shores compilation. You can listen to the compilation here. Looking back at all the amazing Hawaiian records Oliver Seguin has hipped me to over the years, I can quite distinctly remember the time and location of when he’s shared particularly mind-blowing tracks with me. We were at Kakaako Waterfront Park in 2015, a sunset picnic with our families. Oliver played a digital rip of Richard Reb’ll’s "Reb’ll Message" from his phone. Blew me away. It’s a highly unusual, poetic mix of...

I'm pretty sure the first time I heard this song was at Idea's (then Jelly's) during a small in-store event that Oliver and I organized. It might've been when Meaty Ogre was here, which was years ago. In any case, it was Oliver who flawlessly mixed into "Waves" during his set, the song's epic, sweeping swirl of guitars and synthesized sounds of the ocean immediately consuming my attention. What the hell is this? In typical Oliver Twist fashion he smiled, shrugged a little, and shared the record with me. "I got it from the guy himself, at the swap meet."...

2016 was a great year for the label. The previous year had seen the release of Mike Lundy's The Rhythm Of Life to solid praise around the globe, and especially in Europe and London thanks to the help of my good friend Cedric Bardawil (together we launched the Soul Time party series in 2014). In 2015, Cedric introduced me to Quinton Scott of Strut Records, with the hopes that we'd find a way to release a compilation of funk, soul and jazz gems from Hawaii. We did just that! Beginning in early 2015, while Mike Lundy's music reached new fans...

Introducing a new compilation entitled From These Shores, the otherworldly sound of softly psychedelic, cosmic folk and psych from Hawaii. Hazy, lazy, steeped in sunshine; these 13 tracks are gathered here thanks to Aloha Got Soul curators Roger Bong and Oliver Seguin. Spanning the 1960s throughout the 1980s, From These Shores offers curious finds from every corner of the Hawaiian Islands — from the North Shore of Oahu (Gordon Broad) to the streets of Honolulu (Burgess & Brooks), the spiritual escapes of Maui (Merrell Fankhauser) to the spirited efforts of Bahá'í musicians (East Of Midnight), the low-key lounges of Waikiki...