Kīkā Kila Meets Kī Hō'alu

This is one of the better and livelier entries in Dancing Cat’s extensive slack-key guitar series, for reasons of variety alone. The title of the album is roughly translated as Hawaiian acoustic steel meets slack-key, and the disc, logically, is comprised of duets between steel player Brozman and slack guitarist Kaapana. Brozman, noted as both a Hawaiian-style steel virtuoso and archivist of vintage Hawaiian recordings, tends to dominate the arrangements, with Kaapana acting more as a second foil. Brozman goes for a circa 1920 sound, reminiscent of the time when the Hawaiian guitar was in transition from its purely acoustic origins to the louder sound created by resonator guitars. The pair mostly cover Hawaiian songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, often from early Hawaiian recording artists such as Tau Moe, Sol Hoopii, and Kalama’s Quartet. – Richie Unterberger