EP Review: Pepper’s Makai is making big waves
Photo courtesy of LAW Records.
The three-piece band of Kona Town reggae-rockers known as Pepper has recently delivered a healthy new EP, Makai, via LAW Records for our listening pleasure (and a pleasure it is).
Makai contains twenty-five minutes of new music and a couple remixes distributed across seven songs with features from Iration and Edley Shine, already amassing over a million-and-a-half streams on Spotify alone since its release mid-November 2023.
Inside these seven tracks live a multitude of depth and styles to indulge in, all hard to get out of your head once you’ve let ‘em in. Makai starts off strong with the fun, fast-paced and top streaming track, “Get Me Ready”, before transitioning into the calmer, more acoustic-styled herb ballad, “Sweet Leef”.
My personal favorite on the album is “Dancing on the Moon” (feat. Edley Shine), sporting a smooth-ass midnight romance vibe with Shine crushing the final verse inside a powerful delivery. Iration then graces the album with a top-to-bottom remix of “Tides'', incorporating a generous amount of baked-in island flavor this time. The bottom half of the EP houses “Stay High”, “Dub Rock” and the superb “Get Me Ready” (Aloha Remix)”.
I was intrigued by the name of the album and decided to do a little digging… After a short search, I got my answer and realized how appropriate of a title this was for a Pepper album. When driving on an island, the word “makai” means “towards the sea” and can be used to designate the ocean-side of a road (while “mauka” would refer to the inland side of the road). I definitely like to stay on the makai side of life as much as possible.
Kaleo, Bret and Yesod maintain the outstanding chemistry and balance in the products they’ve brought to the world for over twenty-five years; whether in the studio or on the stage, they’ve got the recipe right. This EP exemplifies my point, and there’s no doubt in my mind that all the big Pepper fans out there have every word to this album in their memory banks already. The music is on point with top-notch production, the choruses are so catchy and the style they bring is undeniable. It’s no wonder why they pack houses wherever they go!
If you find yourself on the west coast this May, you can catch these guys on stage playing the California Roots Festival in Monterey, CA (24th-26th). Until then, give Makai a couple spins if you haven’t already!
