Hawaii: Part II is here, from the marvelous mind of Tally Hall's Joe Hawley
Anyone familiar with Joe Hawley as a musician (member of Tally Hall), creator and friend will know that there is certainly no one quite like him and subsequently there is no album quite like Hawaii Part II. The self-release album, out today on Bandcamp after a mysterious weeks-long countdown finally reached zero, never really settles on a particular genre and rather serves a journey for your auditory senses with no roadmap in place except the most unexpected. And this journey, delivered from a collective group of artists that came together under a Japanese moniker that translates to "Miracle Musical," turns out to be a pretty stellar one, to say the least.
Standout tracks include my personal favorite "Labyrinth" featuring vocals from Charlene Kaye and rapping from Shane Maux spun together with the background music from seemingly every 80s Nintendo game theme music ever. Put it on repeat ASAP. Other standouts include the hypnotic "Black Rainbows" - maybe the sequel to Tally Hall's Banana Man if Banana Man found all the really good banana drugs and a sweet sweet jungle groove.
While it's really no miracle that Joe Hawley and the rest of these immensely gifted folks (including fellow Tally Hall bandmates Ross Federman, Rob Cantor and Zubin Sedghi) were able to come together and create and self release album as intricate and imaginative as Hawaii Pt II, fans new and old will certainly be glad that they did.
