HULA HU?

By: DThompson | in: Music |

Hula

I recall it very well. It was 1985 and a typical early spring day here in Portland. That is to say the sky was a sodden grey blanket, casting a frigid drizzle on everything in sight. But, if you live in P-Town you can’t let rain as cold as ice water stop you, or you’ll never do anything. I had slogged over to my favorite hole-in-the-wall record store, actually run out of the owner’s apartment. Charlie was very excited about a new LP he’d just got in and he shoved a cup of coffee in front of me and started playing this group, improbably named Hula. The record was their mid-period double LP “1000 Hours” and by the time it was done I was hooked.
Though the entire album had a cumulative effect, this song, “At The Heart”, more than any other, sealed me as a fan for life.

Hula – At The Heart

Hula

Industrial music had been around for a while, since 1975 really, when Throbbing Gristle split off from the performance art collective COUM and created their private label, Industrial Records. Around the same time Cabaret Voltaire formed in Sheffield mixing harsh electronic music and punk. The one thing these early bands had in common was a sound difficult enough to make your cat hide under the bed.
In the early eighties, industrial music mutated into the less challenging but more listener-friendly post-industrial sound. TG had split into Psychic TV and Chris and Cosey/CTI by then and The Cabs were also still around, but there were now bands too numerous to mention, most completely forgotten. Under “Forgotten Industrial Bands” please file the magnificently unclassifiable Hula. What were they anyway? Electronic? Funk? Some sort of ‘Metal Machine Music’ inspired noise band? Hula was legion. A dark urban sound composed of synths, tape manipulations, metalic guitar and free-jazz inspired saxophone runs slapped over funk soaked bass and tribal drums, all this topped by the searing croon of Ron Wright’s menacingly grim vocals. That’s the best I can do to describe a sound that requires hearing. Listen to “Church Juice” from 1983.

Hula – Cut From Inside

Hula

During the period of 1984-1989 many of the early progenitors of difficult industrial raced pell mell onto the dance floor to shake their industrial groove thangs. Hula instead staked out one of the rawer sounds in the field while still moving in an easier, if not truly commercial direction. If I had my way I’d be including the magnificent songs “Walk on Stalks Of Shattered Glass” and “Black Wall Blue” from 1985 and 1986 respectively. These both showed Hula at their most rhythmically intense and unrelenting. The accomplishments of both songs were pushed to the side by Hula’s best work, the album “Voice”. Sadly, even as it was released the band started to splinter. Drummer Nort left before the LP’s release and Mark Albrow left soon after. Their last release as a group was the single “Poison”.

Hula - Poison

Hula

Hula’s long time label, Red Rhino, went bankrupt in 1987 and remaining members Ron Wright and John Avery managed to put out one last single, a forgettable cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” called “VC1” on Wax Trax in 1987. Though the band apparently recorded more, these tracks were never released and as far as the public was concerned it was scratch one semi-minor industrial band. Hula was finished.
Hula’s output consisted entirely of vinyl, they never released their music on CD. Untill 2006 you either had Hula on vinyl or you didn’t have Hula. But now, thanks to iTunes, the entire Hula catalogue (with the exception of VC1) is available. If you find yourself interested, a regular search for “Hula” will only net you their “Best Of” album, which is not a bad place to start. If you want to go further a Power Search for “Hula” will reveal the entire catalogue. I can’t recommend this band enough to you, there’s not a mountain tall enough for me to shout their name. And face it, if I did everyone would just think I was talking about Hawaii.
Beware one album simply titled “Hula” by Thom Yorke and Andrew Bird.
I’m not sure why these guys decided to call themselves Hula, but they’re not. Or rather, they are, but they’re not the Hula I’ve been carrying on about. They’re some other, entirely different Hula and if they had any decency they’d change their name to “Not That Hula” or something similar.

Hula

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the title for this article came from liner notes on Hula’s LP “Murmur” by Amrik Rai. It was such a perfect title I couldn’t come up with one better. His notes are available to read on the Sour Eden website, devoted to the band.

http://www.soureden.com

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Posted on May 27, 2007

Comments

8 Responses to “HULA HU?”

Ryan of the RSL Music Weblog on May 28th, 2007 4:09 am

Hey, cool…!

DThompson on May 28th, 2007 11:22 am

Oh, what’s cool is that you like them, Ryan. I can’t spread the word about Hula enough.

Charbarred on May 28th, 2007 12:08 pm

How about a weekly Hula song on the Plugg then…or maybe open a whole new blog dedicated to Hula?

DThompson on May 29th, 2007 12:48 pm

A Hula BLOG?! LOL. Maybe I CAN spread the word about Hula enough.

Sandra McCarthy on June 13th, 2007 10:11 pm

I couldn’t agree with you more!!! I am such a huge Hula fan, I went to Sheffield last Fall and got to meet Nort and RON WRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! Ron took me out to a bar called “The Old Queen’s Head” and met some of his friends there (from Sound Design at Sheffield Hallam University) and saw really trippy industrial acts that night while drinking (and smoking side by side with my fucking DREAM!!!) It was all I could have imagined and I’m STILL high…. Anyway, if you’d like to find out more, please email me. You know they have a myspace page right? It’s run by Nort and he’s been hailed by Hula really as the backbone of the band, and when he left, they “imploded” according to Nort… They’re tinkering with getting back together.
peace!
Sandra

David Turner on July 7th, 2007 1:43 am

What am I trying to say? Thank you for letting me by myself again…I’ve lost 2 entire record collections in my 38 years…The first dating from early childhood starting with The Edgar Broughton Band (my brother gave me it for my sixth birthday, I guess he was grooming me…I actually liked it especially the song about the pscyopath… “hello little girl would you like to see my butterfly”) which went all the way to the begining of Acid House passing by a mass of Industrial/Funk Cabaret Voltaire, Test Dept, Non, Nurse With Wound, Foetus, Einsturzende Neubaten, DAF, 400 Blows, 23 Skidoo, Contortions, Lydia Lunch, Quando Quango, Chakk, ACR, Clock DVA, Gang Of Four, Shriekback, Mark Stewart And the Mafia, Tackhead, Adrian Sherwood, Yello, Fire Engines, The Higsons, The Normal, Blurt, The Very Things, The Cravats, Stump, Hula, Finitribe …I could go on and on. The reason for this long winded rant is that there may be fellow vinyl scares out there, so I just want to help other suferers heal by helping to remember the memory markers with the knowledge of a website that has helped me regain and recall… justmusicstore.com.

No this is not a commercial plug, or some search engine tactic to use keywords to direct traffic it’s just an acknowledgement to the artists and an encouragement to the traumatised that you were indeed and still are alive. Even if you have nobody or nothing else you always have the music and the people that love you for it! Thank you for existing “My pain is the bassline!”

P.S. My second record collection (also lost but being repossessed via the same site and Submerge.com) was all Techno mostly Detroit so if you don’t know them by name already here are some to listen to: Underground Resistance (UR), Drexciya, Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin (Yennek), Juan Atkins (Metroplex Records), John Beltran, Dan Curtin, Luke Slater, Luke Vibert, Cari Lekenbush, DJ Rolando, Mad Mike, Red Planet, Ron Trent, Mike Dearborn, Armando (R.I.P.), Steve Poindexter, Two Lone Swordsmen (Andy Weathrall), Amon Tobin (Ninja Tunes), The Irresistable Force, Ultramarine, Kevin Saunderson/Master Reese (KMS Records), A Guy Called Gerald (Juice Box Records), Basic Chanel (Maurizio), Robert Hood, Eddie Flashin Fowlkes, Jeff Mills, 69, Neal Howard, Derrick May, Black Dog, Boards of Canada, The Aphex Twin, Autechre, Derrick Carter, Warp Records, Transmat Records, Retroactive Records, Richie Hawtin, John Aquaviva, Psyance, R&S Records, Plus 8, POD…so much talent, so much gratitude!!!

Bill Barnett on July 18th, 2007 10:08 pm

I am so cheered about all the Hula pages (and digital reissues) that have sprung up in the last few years! They were my favorite band in the 80s, and David Turner’s first record collection above lists several more of my favorites. I hate to be one of those middle-aged codgers who insist that the music of their youth was the best ever, and “today’s music is nothing but shite,” but…that was truly great music! Being in the US I never did get to see Hula; all I can do is pray for a reunion and a US tour.