Stories

I'm a bit late to announcing this on the blog, but Catching A Wave (AGS-038) dropped last Friday. We're elated with the response it's generated among fans new and old!  It's the first classic Hawaiian album that we've reissued on Aloha Got Soul. Up until now, most the albums we've released have been lesser known diamonds in the rough that sit outside of the Hawaiian music genre spectrum. I believe it's a solid first step in the label's ongoing progression. And I can't thank Teresa and Steve enough for this opportunity. Earlier today, Bandcamp published a feature on the album, detailing its origins in the early 1980s to...

If you've been following AGS since day one — or if you've managed to dig through our blog post archives all the way back to the very first post ever made here — you'd know that DJ Muro’s Hawaiian Breaks mix from 2009 inspired me to start AGS in the first place!  Ten years later, I can't hardly believe I'm writing this, but DJ Muro is releasing a new mix in the Hawaiian Breaks series this week, and it's all about Aloha Got Soul and the music our little label has been releasing since 2015. It’s been a trip to see this passion project/blog-turned label...

Today I'm happy to share with you the second installment in our Disco Island Edits series. The six tracks composing Volume 2 were pieced together with care by our crate-digging cohort in NYC, Sticky Dojah, real name Phil Lembke. Phil has been an enthusiastic supporter of AGS for a few years now, his love of local music really kicking in when his father-in-law moved to Hawai‘i Island. Annual family vacations to Hilo side yielded Phil with a growing collection of hard-to-find Hawaiian gems, as evidenced by his (current) photo on his Bandcamp page, where he's seen holding up a copy...

When I first started blogging in 2010, it was sparked by the surprisingly funky, soulful sounds heard on DJ Muro's Hawaiian Breaks mixtape. I'd never heard anything from Hawaii quite like it before, save for the track "A Million Stars" by Macky Feary Band. In fact, until I knew any better, I could've guessed that Mike Lundy was black — his opening tracks, "Nothing Like Dat Funky Funky Music" and "The Rhythm Of Life", were filled with the spirit and sounds of black American music. That is, R&B, jazz, soul, and funk. It was a theme I wrote about more...

Steve and Teresa captivated Hawaii in the 1980s with their debut album, Catching A Wave, which showcased the duo's effortless style that blended jazz, Hawaiian, and hapa haole music. Now for the first time, the timeless title track "Catching A Wave" will be available on 7-inch vinyl. Over the years we've befriended Steve Ma‘i‘i and Teresa Bright, who have graciously given Aloha Got Soul the opportunity to reissue their debut album for the world to hear once again. After all, it's been out of print since 1983! (Except for a few Japan-only reissues on CD, which now sell for $100...