Post #521719 by tikiyaki on Fri, Apr 2, 2010 10:21 PM

On 2010-04-02 16:45, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:

Exotica music evolved from Hawaiian and Movie music similarly until it too was dense and saturated with tropical nuance. There wasn't much more room for either genre to grow "more exotic". Like a dinosaur that becomes an evolutionary dead-end, Exotica music grew perfectly suited to its niche environment. When the cultural climate changed, it died-off fairly quickly because it's not a robust, adaptable form of music. But put it back in a home Tiki Bar or a hidden microclimate like the Mai Kai, and it thrives again.

I see Exotica music as an orchid that's been hybridized by man until it becomes a beautiful freak of nature that can't survive outside of the hothouse. Lots of other musical styles like surf, jazz, rockabilly, etc. fit well in a tiki bar, but Exotica music seems to be the only one that thrives there and wilts when it's uprooted to another environment.

Wow, if that assessment doesn't hit the nail on the head, I don't know what does.
The Original Exotica Music was so specific and tied to the Polynesian Pop/Tiki Bar craze heyday (loosely 1959-63) that it really couldn't exist outside it's environment. Martin Denny himself described his music as "window dressing", so it really was part of the decor, so to speak, just like a pufferfish lamp, a giant tiki, or jade tiles strung up between bamboo. It was part of the overall ambiance...

Perhaps the fact that it had no lyrics was part of the equation too....no lyrics , means you can't sing along, or relate to the music on any sort of ideological level...it was just a soothing sound to set the mood...and that's what Denny and Lyman did....set the mood.....so the listener had a sort of mild detachment to it, and it became more of a subconscious thing....or "vibe" as we call it today.

As for what Tiki Music is now....I think that the initial idea is still important....a relaxing vibe, AND some sort of Tiki imagery in the cover art and aesthetics... but now it encompasses all musical food groups from that era...lounge, hawaiian, hapa haole, exotica proper, surf, rockabilly....in a word "retro" culture. My tiki playist includes Herb Alpert, Esquivel, The Blue Hawaiians, as well as the Exotica classics.

Here are some of the things that signify music as "tiki music" to ME....

STEEL GUITAR - not pedal steel, but lap steel in the western swing/ hawaiian tuning.
VIBES - instantly gives you that tiki (no pun intended) vibe
Bongos/Congas - jungle percussion
Reverby surf guitar...sorry, but to me, a nice reverb drenched guitar with tremolo invokes that feeling...of course, if the music is too aggressive....less so.

Anyway, those are some of the musical food groups that I felt were necessary in making tiki music, so that's what you have in the Tikiyaki Orchestra.
And, tho' alot of folks will say we're not a "true" exotica band I'll argue otherwise, only that true exotica sound is only PART of what we do...which is maybe why the band has had a fair amount of success, because we hit a few different musical genres, from a wider time period.
I just drew from a wider palette, because it all invoked that tropical, exotic feeling to me...

The good news is that, a band like Tikiyaki, can play an event with a band like the Hula Girls, The Intoxicators, the Eliminators, or the Smokin' Menehunes and it works.

Just think how boring Tiki Oasis or Hukilau it would be, if we all sounded like Arthur Lyman.

Variety is the spice of life...a necessary ingredient to keep things exciting.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2010-04-02 22:29 ]