Exotica and Ultra Lounge

[Summer_Days]

Anybody else here love exotica music? Stuff like Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman and Yma Sumac - just fun to listen to.

Also, Capitol Records' great Ultra Lounge series which features volumes devoted to not only exotica, but also cool, lounge-y bossa nova, finger-snappin' vocalists, weird, oddball instrumentals, TV themes and more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeYsWzzbMMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeYsWzzbMMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeWLlhcvnE4

[rab2591]

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8605.0.html

^ It was this thread here that got me into a lot of Exotica music.

Les Baxter is probably my favorite (his Voodoo Dreams song is incredible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5FRc4cTUSg)

I can't say I'm a big fan of Martin Denny - his use of wildlife sounds kinda ruin the listening experience for me.

[Summer_Days]

I dunno why, but I love the tropical sounds on Denny's recordings. He takes you there.
I'm happy to own his Exotica, Exotica Vol. 2 and Quiet Village on original vinyl and Quiet Village/The Enchanted Sea two-fer on CD. Joyful stuff, love listening to it all.

[Dunderhead]

This one will always be my favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybz7kHdmi1k

Frank Hunter is pretty good too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhXknkI4dxE

I've been digging into exotica for a few years now, I have to say though, taken on the whole, it's more or less a novelty genre.

[guitarfool2002]

Esquivel is and has been my favorite, and I think his music holds up better than the sound-effect laden records which I guess lean more toward the "exotica" label. Esquivel is incredibly fun to listen, and if you get *just one* of his albums, look for the first compilation from the early 90's called "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music". That is one of my favorite albums of all time, hands down, and was the soundtrack of many fun times...at least those I can remember.

I have a stack of similar themed albums, including the Martin Denny records, but they never got to me like Esquivel. I also have a bunch of those Command label records most often with Enoch Light doing Persuasive Percussion, Provocative Percussion, all the variations on that title they could add including "volume 2". They're kind of fun but not as groovy or kitsch as some of the more popular names. Good background music which was never designed to be hip in any way.

Those Capitol collections Ultra Lounge were nice, I actually got more into listening to the Three Suns because of them. I like the accordion/guitar sound!

Also, seek out a disk called "Incredibly Strange Music". It was a companion to a book series of the same name and it's not as much "exotica" as it is some really bizarre, forgotten music from bygone times.

Lounge/exotica never really went away, it just returned to the niche market and the core fans who were there before it became a scene toward the middle 90's. Just like the swing revival, it went all kinds of mainstream, even Tarantino tried to jump on it with Four Rooms, but then it went back to being a cool genre and style of music. The music is still there and much of it is very good and a lot of fun.

Watchamacallit, Esquivel!

[Summer_Days]

Sure thing, RangeRover.

Also check out Capitol Records' multi-part Ultra Lounge series. Very enjoyable. Vol. 1 is Mondo Exotica, an exotica compilation, and a great one at that. Many of the other UL volumes are great. The leopard-skin sampler and the tiki sampler are particularly great buys. They're nice little samples of many of the UL CDs.

http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Lounge-Sampler-Various-Artists/dp/B000002U5V/ref=pd_sim_m_3

http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Lounge-Tiki-Sampler-Various-Artists/dp/B00000IP2Z/ref=pd_sim_m_16

Also check out http://www.ultralounge.com/ for song samples.