Post #577527 by tiki mick on Thu, Feb 24, 2011 7:20 AM

Well, I have always been into "exotic" themes, and never knew what "Tiki" was until I found this forum. Of course I had been a huge fan of Les Baxter, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman going way back to my childhood. I just didn't know what that style of music was called for many years. In my mind, there was never any real difference between the exotic sounds of 1950's hollywood Africa, or polynesia...so when I created "the Dark Continent" it is an homage to many things, Disney's jungle cruise, movies like "African Queen" and books such as "heart of Darkness".

But it could just as well be about the Amazon, or Borneo and Sumatra...did you know that out of all the "lands" in Disneyland, "adventureland" was always my favorite?(with Tomorrowland" being a close second!) so I tried to put that in my music. That particular set of three pieces, to me, also has a lot of roman influences, mixed with the type of low-brass chords that Gil Evans used. There are also elements of my favorite composers like Charles Ives and Copland. It's dischordant and raw sounding....and quite scary...because even though we listen to exotica in the comfort of our own homes, sipping cocktails with no care in the world...there is a dangerous place out there, where a man can die very quickly if he is not careful. The Jungle is not just in Africa, but right here in our cities as well. This may be why I am such a fan of 80's period King Crimson, and just about everything Jon Hassell has ever created.

You asked about the song "Ucayali". It's an original, in so much that it's just a one chord jam song...and Ucayali is one of the main tributary rivers of the Amazon river, ( place I have on my bucket list to go to!)

As to covers, well, I spent years as mainly an avante garde musician. I have stuff in my archives so strange and "out there" that is is not for human consumption. But every so often, I feel like coming down from where I was, and doing a cover of some typical standard jazz or bossa tune...something to keep me grounded. If you go to my soundcloud pages and look at some of the other songs, you will see a mixture of both standards and some more obscure covers.

In all, I feel I am doing something different here. Whether it is liked or scorned remains to be seen. It has no elements of surf or garage rock, and I know that those are the two most popular styles on this forum...but the classically influenced, exotic styled Safari music is my own thing...and you heard it here first, Zeta! Hopefully, other artists will keep doing what they do, and leave me to do what I do....!

You mentioned the song, Lights on the Water....this is actually a tune I came up with years ago, while stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I would walk by myself, sit, sometimes have a cocktail at the Navy Yacht club overlooking the water...and just dream. At night, Pearl Harbor can be a very beautiful place!

And PS, I LOVE Aphex Twin, as well as Squarepusher......

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2011-02-24 07:27 ]