“Untold Classics”
The Knumbskulls
(Hawaiian Express)

All veteran artists are entitled to revisit their old material from time to time. The Knumbskulls are doing that with “Untold Classics.” Announced prior to its release in August as an EP — the industry term for a record with more than two songs but less than 10 — “Untold Classics” is actually a full-length 12-song album with seven studio recordings and another five “bonus live tracks” that show how the group sounds when it’s being inspired by a crowd.

Two guest vocalists join them on studio tracks — Mickey Finn on “Another Day” and Sidney Branch on “Beautiful Ones.” The studio sessions are also notable for including acoustic arrangements of two songs. One of the acoustic numbers, “Without Reason,” comes up a second time as a full-throttle rocker in the live recordings.

The bottom line is that the group approaches these vintage originals with, say, 15 years more maturity but with no drop in intensity, commitment and craftsmanship. Kudos to the Knumbskulls’ resident songwriters, known professionally as Clif Knumbskull and Aaron Knumbskull, on keeping their work alive and fresh. Congratulations also to Knumbskulls drummer Paul Van, who engineered and mixed the album.

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“A‘ole TMT”
Marty Dread featuring Leiohu Ryder
(Five Corners Music)

Maui reggae veteran Marty Dread teams up with Leiohu Ryder on this song protesting construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea. Dread sings in English, but with Ryder chanting in Hawaiian, the song is a welcome step toward the day when some of the Jamaican-style music recorded here uses the indigenous language of the islands.

Dread delivers the message — “Mauna Kea is not for sale” and “Mauna Kea is you and me” — in the same catchy compelling style Bob Marley used in expressing Rastafarian concerns in Jamaica in the 1970s. If Hawaii’s self-styled “island music” radio stations aren’t playing “A‘ole TMT,” it’s because of the subject matter and not because of the production values. Protesting something that many people here are deeply invested in seeing built is a lot riskier for commercial radio than playing songs that spout cliches about “reggae down Babylon” directed toward some other part of the world.

For instance, when Brother Noland released “Look What They’ve Done,” a song protesting over-building in Waikiki, in the 1980s, “Hawaiian radio” wouldn’t play it.

Available on iTunes.

“The Girl on the TV Screen”
Aidan James
(Aidan James Entertainment)

Aidan James made the transition from precocious child novelty act to serious entertainer several years ago, but this new single is a quantum leap toward adulthood for him. Not to put too much pressure on a guy still in his midteens, but it sounds like his producer, Nashville-based songwriter Tommy Cecil, spent a lot of time listening to everything Bruno Mars has recorded or produced and has a similar concept in mind for Aidan.

Mars is certainly a successful template to clone from, and Aidan does a good job at it. The song is about wanting to have things like “the name, the game, the fortune, the fame,” going “stretch limo riding” and being able to “turn the night up all the way to crazy in the Maserati” with the girl on the TV screen. It’s worthy of a place on the national Hot 100.

It also shows, no question about it, that Aidan’s not a kid anymore.

Visit AidanJamesMusic808.com.

“I Believe”
Pati featuring Sina
(RSM)

Samoan recording artist Pati made his Hawaii debut in 2001 with the first of two albums produced by the Whodunnits for Rukkus Records. Both albums — the second was released in 2003 — positioned Pati as a soulful crooner of urban-style pop “slow jams” and made him a rising star locally. But an excess of generic Jawaiian remakes left him short of the material he needed to go beyond Hawaii and set himself apart from the thousands of urban-style vocalists who already had mainland record deals.

Twelve years later Pati is back. He’s working with new producers and signed to a different label, but his voice is as soulful as ever. He sings of believing in love, of surviving times when he didn’t know where he was going, and that “we can be the change we want to see.” Messages of hope and faith in a better future never go out of style.

Available on amazon.com.