Exotica Essentials...|...Digital Reissues

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Exotica is a style of music popularized in the 1950's and 1960's in America. Exotica features atmospheric music designed to set a mood of far away tropical lands such as Hawaii or the Orient. The music stereotypically features sound effects like bird calls and jungle sounds, although relatively few albums, with the exception of those by Martin Denny actually featured such sounds.

Martin Denny is credited as the "Father of Exotica" for having popularized the genre in the 50's and '60s with his albums such as "Exotica, Exotica II & III". Denny, along with his percussionist Augie Colon, invented the novelty of bird calls and jungle sounds within the music. The story goes that Denny's group was performing at the Shell Bar in Waikiki, HI which contained a water feature with frogs. When the band would start, the frogs would croak. When the music stopped, so would the frogs. People thought it was part of the music and began to request the songs with the frog sounds. Soon after, Colon-- a master bird caller, began to include bird calls in the songs and the genre became wildly popular.

While Denny is considered the "Father of Exotica," then Les Baxter must be credited as the "Godfather of Exotica." Baxter, a master composer and arranger with Capitol Records in the 40's and on into the 70's is the actual composer of such Denny classics as "Quiet Village", "Left Arm of Buddha", "Taboo" just to name a few. Baxter is credited for having released THE first Exotica release ever "Ritual of the Savage" which featured exotic rhythms borrowed from Latin and African sounds and featured song titles that evoked far away lands.

Although the genre is typically associated with out-of-print LP's and 50 year old music, there are a small handful of modern artists recreating and reinterpreting Exotica today. Of note are The Tikiyaki Orchestra, Martini Kings and Waitiki. Exotica on Wikipedia

SPECIAL NOTE TO COLLECTORS ON THE GENRE: This genre was very popular in America during the 50's and 60's so used LP's are still fairly easy to find. Although, since the resurgence in the interest of the Tiki culture, good quality copies of these artifacts are becoming more and more scarce.

BUY THE CD'S: If you thought Exotica on LP was rare, the CD releases are even more rare and are often released with little or no fanfare. Regardless of popular belief, labels don't release a CD and manufacture indefinitely. Most labels release reissues of such niche market albums as Exotica in runs of 10,000 copies. Its also easier to obtain reissue rights in small runs of 10K discs. That means, when they're sold out, they're gone. So if you see one that is released, GET IT....if you like it.

EXOTICA DIGITAL DOWNLAODS: With the explosion in the popularity of online music sales such as iTunes Store, etc., some record companies that hold the rights (and the master tapes) to these recordings are actually reissuing them straight to online sales services and avoiding the cost of disc duplication. Again, they are released with no fanfare and finding them can take some searching within libraries. But its worth it. Most of these releases are directly from the master tapes.

Japanese Vintage Hawaiian CD Releases, But Hurry!
[updated 1/24/08]
Anyone who collects exotica and vintage Hawaiian records will tell you, there is literally a ton of albums that have never been, and my never be released on CD in the Exotica and Hawaiian (Hapa Haole) genres. However, I have been discovering a rather surprising number of vintage Hawaiian recordings released in Japan in the last year. The Japanese have always been known in record collector circles for putting out CDs of albums from days gone by. In 2006 a series of vintage Hawaiian albums were released on CD under the "Aloha Smile Series" marquee which is part of Universal Music, Japan. Sadly, most are Limited Editions and many are already out of print and unobtainable. Some are still available though. So, if you are interested, you better move on them FAST. I don't really want to endorse any one online store, but I can recommend CDJapan. I have ordered from them, and they are quite good at customer service, but they are by no means the only Japan CD source on line.

Away, Here are some standouts that I can vouch for...because I have them. Click here for the list with cover art.

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TIKI MUSIC:
What is Tiki music? There really is no genre called "Tiki Music," but rather it is a group of genres (Exotica, Hapa Haole/Hawaiian, Ultra-Lounge) that generally fit well into a Tiki bar or exotic environment.

MUSIC LINKS:

Here are some great Tiki music links.