Search and Destroy: Lounge/Exotica

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I've decided that my Henry Mancini box set is my only desert island disk selection. What's the best and worst of this genre/scene? Mancini? Denny? Ultralounge Compilations? Leopard print picture frames?

― marianna maclean, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Search: Les Baxter. Esquivel. Has anyone heard Hal Blaine's 'Psychedelic Percussion'? What's it like?

― tarden, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Search: Most stuff by Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter, James Last's latin dance party album. A good place to start is with the two sound gallery compilations - they are more uk focussed tho, so have more funky stuff (e.g. Roy Budd) than exotic US / tiki stuff.

Destroy - there is so much bad stuuf. Most of the vinyl you get for pennies in charity shops in the UK is rubbish - all the decent stuff was snapped up 5 years ago by ppl in the know. Best to stick to the compilations - i have an ace one of italian porn themes, but cant remember the title now... If in the US, its a lot easier to find stuff tho, or that's what I've been told.

― Robin, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I have heard a bit of it Tarden. Its interesting but a bit dull. I mean, its just drums after all.

― Mike Hanley, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Search: all the albums with exploitave covers containing pictures of naked women.

Destroy: the actual albums themselves.

― JM, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I have come only to Destroy.

There's a reissue series called "Cocktail Hour" which deals with some swing/lounge stuff. I bought their Anita O'Day and Marlene Dietrich releases and was appalled at the sound quality. Very shoddy and appears to be an attempt to cash in on the huge(!?) lounge market. I can't imagine the other ones being any better (I did have my eye on the Maurice Chevalier reissue though...).

"Cocktail Hour": Unsafe at any speed!

― Steven James, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Destroy: Combustible Edison and Brian Setzer Orchestra (not really lounge, but who cares), one "knowing" and the other "sincere", both ill-advisedly trying to write their own songs in the style, both marred by terible, terrible singing that reduces everything to unintentional parody. And not a clever parody, at that.

― tarden, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The current lounge acts really need to re-evaluate their singers performance. The singing is, as noted above, terrible.

― Steven James, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Don't know if this qualifies - s'alittle punky - but I am a fool for Steretotal. "Movie Star" "Get Down Tonight" "Couleur Cafe" in a rattly falling-apart style.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Ooh yes, Stereo Total ...

That night in the Wag Club. We touched epiphany at that moment. And I have never actually listened to a single one of their records.

David, how did you describe them to me that time? "Analog Skiffle", wasn't it?

― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I don't think of Stereo Total as Lounge. I Love combustible edison. Especially their last album, its quirky and a mash of decades. Mix, shake, serve over ice.

― Mike Hanley, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Search: all of it
Destroy: whatever you find

By the way, global planners are declaring the year 2020 or 2050 (can't remember) as the the beginning of "The Leisure Age". Doesn't that sound like a lounge act? Buncha lazy martini-drinkin' slouches!

Search (for real): The Moonlighters. Everything else I know of, I'm sure you do, too. But, the Moonlighters are great. Weird cross between Hawaiian music and old (?) tophat and tux 42nd street sorta stuff.

― Society For A Lounge-Free Environment, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

yeah stereo total is a strange answer, which lounge are they in? francoise cactus should be listed in the women who deserve credit for something category, she's groovy.

― keith, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Hal Blaine's "Psych Percussion" (for the guy who asked about it back there) is choice, but wouldn't really cut it as "lounge music" for most fans of that stuff i don't think. It's about what you'd imagine, drum soli with lotsa effects.

― duane zarakov, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

http://jackdiamond.com/moog_electronic_sitar.html

Concerning Psychadelic Percussion...

― Mike Hanley, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I'd probably get flamed for saying this, but, I think that a lot of the new electronic stuff, like Air and Goldfrapp, are very much a sub-genre of lounge music. Maybe some call it trip-hop or whatever.. i really don't know. But they certainly use very John Barryesqe chords and progressions. I'm listening to Goldfrapp now and it's more like Combustible Edison than most will admit too.

I get the same feeling when I listen to Broadcast and Plone.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of the exotica-tribal beat lounge, but love the Italian soundtracks, and James Bond themes, etc.

So if anyone gets my drift and could suggest some new bands similar to the ones mentioned above, I'd be grateful.

― marianna maclean, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

i'll nip in before robin and say:

broadcast=joe meek

plone=paddy kingsland/70s era radiophonic workshop ...

― gareth, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

marianna, how 'bout The Gentle People

― gareth, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

got that already, and a lot of the "la decadanse" section at Other Music NY, which i suppose, pretty much covers the loungy-dancy-jpop-ye ye-genre.

― marianna, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I used to be more into exotica, but now I'm tired of it. Les Baxter is the weirdest, so I like him the best, but some of his best stuff is hard to find, like his "drums" albums.

I prefer the category of "easy" better, because it has more possibilities: you can have funk easy, acid easy, moog easy. The "Beat at Cinnecita" comps of Italian lounge are the best. Lately, I'm more into the soul / lounge / soundtrack nexus a la the Dustygroove store. The "Beat at Cinnecita" comps of Italian easy are the best.

― Kerry Keane, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

marianna - search "1234" by Golden Boy and Miss Kittin. Also "Disko B". All on the Ladomat label. One might call it "electro-lounge"... (sounds awful)

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

As far as "easy" goes, The New Design are my favorite (Stereolab even named a song for them). They were helped by Ray Coniff (sp.?), whose covers of contemporary ('sixties and 'seventies) pop and rock songs are always extraordinary.

― X. Y. Zedd, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

You mean The *Free* Design, X.Y. Zedd. And, yes, they are great.

I'm trying to move on (hem hem) so probably wouldn't have stepped in where you did, Gareth. Actually, like Tom, I find Broadcast's genuine modernism more important than any lost relics they encounter. Plone are probably closer to Roger Limb or Peter Howell, anyway; it is one of our own who is the closest to Kingsland.

(I really should start being less cryptic ...)

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Thank you so much for correcting me, Robin. I can only blame my extreme error on using a borrowed computer, having to type quickly, and being two thousand miles away from my music collection.

― X. Y. Zedd, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Sorry if I came over pedantic. I've been spoiled through not yet (thankfully) being in such limbo.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 25 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

No problemo, Robin: you're speaking to the King Of Pedants (I'm an editor and proofreader by trade). I wonder how many people caught that commercial here in the USA which used Stereolab's "Free Design" as its soundtrack. It might not have been the group's version, but it sure sounded like them. I was so torn between wondering if they'd "sold out" and loving it that I can't remember if the commercial was for a car or some telecommunications company (Verizon?).

My own truly secret favorite space-age lounge record is Gordon Jenkins's "Manhattan Tower," both the original and Robert Goulet versions. A bachelor pad cantata, surely worthy of reissue if it hasn't already been. The Ultralounge Series "Mondo Exotica" is the best of that lot.

I must object to a complete dismissal of Combustible Edison, if only I'm sort of a friend of a friend of a friend. They were at the forefront of the early '90s lounge revival and they do know how to handle a clever pastiche, singing and all. Problem is as with most things they became victims of the trend(iness)--but maybe by outlasting it (have they broken up yet?) they can prove winners in the long run.

― X. Y. Zedd, Sunday, 27 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

4 years pass...

i quite like dominic frontiere's pagan festival. low key suburban exotic. quite understated, and polite, but with that little chacha under the collar

― エル・ハジ・ディウフ, Sunday, 21 August 2005 19:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

revive. i have been asked to do an exotica mix and was planning to include the usual suspects - esquivel, denny, ahbez, baxter and sumac. i am also going to put on the wonderful 'moonbow' by duke ellington and though not strictly exotica, the divine 'beija-me amor' by rita lee. any suggestions for other additions? think lush, atmospheric, moody exotica rather than easy schmaltz. thanks.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 29 August 2005 18:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

dominic frontiere's pagan festival (i like jaguar god at the moment)

are you against putting people like andy iona and al shaw in? pre-war exotica (some of it, felix mendelsohn/al shaw etc...british hawaiian music!)

― charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 29 August 2005 19:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

i will check out that dominic frontiere. i'm not against putting anyone on it. however, i've never really heard any pre war exotica though i intend to remedy that asap. thanks for the tips!

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 29 August 2005 19:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Does anyone have a copy of a compilation called Monokini? I've only heard the "Laisser Tomber Les Filles" cover, but it's great and I'm wondering how the rest of it is?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 29 August 2005 19:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

6 years pass...

has anyone else heard this Elisabeth Waldo album (Rites of the Pagan)? she's a classically trained violinist with a scholarly interest in pre-Columbian music, and the music is less jazzy/loungey than most other exotica I've heard. the contrast between the violin and the traditional instruments really makes this stuff special.

― starfish succulents (unregistered), Sunday, 29 July 2012 02:31 (9 months ago) Permalink

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