Nohelani Cypriano’s ‘Lihue’

The original album by Nohelani Cypriano, and the recent 7-inch reissue of Lihue from Athens Of The North ROGER BONG PHOTO

But there’s something else, something I’ve been waiting for someone to say something about. But I haven’t seen any news yet, so here goes.

“Top-tier Hawaiian disco boogie masterpiece available for the first time on 45.” That’s direct from the website of U.K.-based record label Athens Of The North, which recently reis-sued on 7-inch vinyl a local chart-topping hit from 1979, known as Lihue, by songstress Nohelani Cypriano.

The tune — warmed by an infectious bass line, fused with Martin Denny-like bird calls and filed under the disco/boogie/funk genres — has gathered cult status from DJs and record collectors over the past few years. The eponymous album it originally appeared on, Nohelani, has long since been out of print and difficult to find.

“It took us three years to persuade Nohelani to let us do a Lihue reissue,” Athens Of The North explains on its website.

At the moment, the only place in the U.S. (that I know of) where the record currently is available is Pacific Beach Vinyl, an online record store based in San Diego that specializes in giving Americans access to out-of-reach (read: ridiculously expensive to import) international releases. Right now, it costs $22. You also can purchase the digital audio files from aotn.co for roughly $2.50 American. Or you could try to track down a copy from one of several U.K.-based online record stores, but most of them already have sold out.

So, it took three years of coaxing to gain access to license the track from Nohelani herself, who originally released the song 35 years ago on her self-titled debut (which won Contemporary Album of the Year at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards in 1980), and requiring no small investment from AOTN to get this song back into circulation. That’s pretty impressive.

“We tried to create a new sound for the Islands,” Nohelani told me, when I first interviewed her in 2012.

She achieved that goal with Lihue, and I’m excited it’s made a comeback today.

But hardly anyone in Honolulu seems to be talking about it — or even knows about it. I think it’s important more of us find out when these things happen. (I didn’t know about it until a friend in London told me.) Before long, this music from our Islands that has resurfaced today easily could fall through the cracks of time tomorrow — and take another 35 years for us to rediscover and enjoy. alohagotsoul.com