New Waitiki 7 Album - OMFG!

While this album hasn't been released yet and is not intended for my virgin ears, I happen to be married to a VIP who received an advance copy. This album will knock you out, I kid you not, arguably the best and most consistent neo-exotica album you've heard.

I had the pleasure of meeting Randy Wong a few weeks back at an exclusive Boston watering hole.

Superb album guys!

[ Edited by: OnyaBirri 2009-05-30 13:41 ]

Woo-hoo! Can't wait for the release! Anyone have any idea when it's coming out?

Track Listing

1. Coronation
2. Totem Pole
3. Manila
4. Craving
5. Left Arm of Buddha
6. Her Majesty’s Pearl
7. Ouanalao
8. L’ours Chinois
9. Ned’s Redemption
10. Sacha-cha
11. Octopus Menagerie
12. Mood Indigo
13. Adventures in Paradise

http://waitiki7.com/the-cd/

Thanks Drew for the kind words about our new album! It was my pleasure to meet you and Laura and introduce you to Drink.

The CD is titled Adventures in Paradise, and it is the debut effort of our new WAITIKI project, The WAITIKI 7. The WAITIKI 7 is the same group that performed at last summer's Festival Wassermusik (Berlin, Germany), and for the Retro Cocktail Hour's 500th Broadcast Anniversary Party (Lawrence, KS).

Our release date is August 18, 2009, which coincides with (and commemorates) the 50th Anniversary of Hawaii's Statehood. The album will be for sale online at our websites (http://WAITIKI.com and http://WAITIKI7.com), iTunes, CDBaby, and at retail stores in Hawaii and the west coast.

For more information about The WAITIKI 7 and the new album, please visit:
http://waitiki7.com/the-cd/

Can't wait!!!

Great cover guys - I'm looking forward to hearing your new material!!

&, better, yet, I'm looking forward to hearing some of the songs played LIVE at OHANA Luau at the Lake in Lake George, NY - just a month after the CD release :D :D
http://www.LuauAtTheLake.com

On 2009-05-31 14:04, croe67 wrote:
Great cover guys - I'm looking forward to hearing your new material!!

&, better, yet, I'm looking forward to hearing some of the songs played LIVE at OHANA Luau at the Lake in Lake George, NY - just a month after the CD release :D :D
http://www.LuauAtTheLake.com

We will be playing some of the tunes from the album at Ohana. But just to be clear: it is our quartet that will be playing, not The WAITIKI 7. (In other words, BYOBC... Bring Your Own Bird Calls)

We will be playing some of the tunes from the album at Ohana. But just to be clear: it is our quartet that will be playing, not The WAITIKI 7. (In other words, BYOBC... Bring Your Own Bird Calls)

Hmmm, maybe I'll just bring my own bird!

Oh, we can do bird calls. :):)

Can't wait for Ohana!!

Suzanne

I want, I want, I want

Believe. :D

Have heard the entire album (thanks Randy) and I can assure you it is Very Good...can't wait to play it on the Cocktail Nation as soon as the release date is here!

Jeff, Koop, & Drew, thanks for the sweet testimonials!!

Yes, it feels like a long time until August 18 finally hits, and the world can hear our new album. But fear not: We've put up a number of promo videos with player insights into our music, the state of exotica as it is today, and yes, some ** sneak-peek listening of the new tracks**.

Check them out online, at The WAITIKI 7's website: http://waitiki7.com/press/video/

More videos will be added soon too!

-Randy & The WAITIKI 7

Randy, I just played your album for my combo-mates in Stolen Idols and they are thoroughly BLOWN AWAY! Again, superb job!

As the biggest international fan of Waitiki (7 or not), I want a listening preview NOW !!!!!

OK, enough with the teaser tracks! I want it already!

VERY NICE!

Randy,

Played the CD for friends last night while enjoying cocktails. It really is an incredible album. Great work!

~glen leslie
http://www.kfai.org/jetsetplanet

These are especially exciting times for those who appreciate genuine Exotica. I consider the new Waitiki album a milestone (and it hasn't even been released!) - the most serious effort since "back in the day." Now we are really doing it!

Then I hear Stolen Idols live at the Hukilau - right on the money. Congratulations, Drew!

The potential for the new music is getting me worked up! Guess I'll have to have a shrunken skull or two to regain my composure. :wink:

Jack

Thanks Jack and Glen!

I wish there was links to studio tracks.
even if it was small clips.

and a myspace would be nice too.
:roll:

Jeff(bigtikidude)

On 2009-06-16 12:57, bigtikidude wrote:
I wish there was links to studio tracks.
even if it was small clips.

and a myspace would be nice too.
:roll:

Jeff(bigtikidude)

There are. Clips here: http://waitiki7.com/the-cd/audio-samples/

August 18....

ok gotcha,
thanks,

but I do still wish you had a Myspace where it just started playing on its own.
I'm lazy and stupid, and its hard to navigate your site.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I've heard some select cuts and I gotta agree with all the gushing. Flat out, one of the best Exotica albums I've heard.

August cant get here soon enough. Friggin amazing stuff W7, just amazing.

You guys doing pre-orders or anything? I neeeed that cd!! now!!!

On 2009-06-16 22:56, bigtikidude wrote:
ok gotcha,
thanks,

but I do still wish you had a Myspace where it just started playing on its own.
I'm lazy and stupid, and its hard to navigate your site.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

We do have a myspace. There's a button to it at our website. The link is: http://myspace.com/waitiki7. Also become a friend of Waitiki International: http://myspace.com/waitiki

**

And yes, pre-orders are available!! Go to: http://waitiki7.com/shop.

By the way, are any of you Mother Jones subscribers? If so, check out page 78 in the new September '09 issue for a tasty review of the album!! I think the mag hits newsstands next week at the earliest. I'm not sure when the review gets posted to their website.

WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL LLC: Advancing Exotica & Tiki for Modern Times
www.WAITIKI.com and also visit The WAITIKI 7

[ Edited by: professahhummingflowah 2009-08-13 14:57 ]

Well worth the wait.

Friggin KICK ASS album. Kudos Waitiki!!!

And to everyone who hasnt heard it in its entirety, if you dont have this album yet, you NEED it.

Thanks Bargoyle!

We've also been getting some nice reviews for the album from mainstream press!

Check out what *Mother Jones* magazine has to say.

Also we were named as one of "This Week's Best Albums" by ALARM Magazine

(those links go to review highlights on our website)

Thank you to all TC'ers for your support!

When you're selling a hundred thousand units make sure you take us all with you.
Or we'll tell all your dark tiki secrets.

WAFFLE HOUSE!!!

For real though, I can't wait to get a copy at Ohana.

Here is a new review from Weirdomusic.com: (http://www.weirdomusic.com/reviews/waitiki7/adventuresinparadise.htm)

The Waitiki 7 - Adventures In Paradise [Pass Out Records, 2009]

The press release for the album Adventures in Paradise states that Waitiki 7 is the only band that is performing Exotica live and acoustic, just like it was in the 1950s. They are the rightful heirs of Denny, Lyman, and Esquivel. Randy Wong, one of the principle co-founders used to go see Arthur Lyman play the vibes as a child. Lopaka Colon, who adorns the album with colorful bird calls, follows in the footsteps of his father Augie Colon, who used to do the same for Martin Denny's albums. They have lived and breathed with this music, and as such, it is not merely hipster irony or pastiche that urges them to resurrect this incidental music, but rather a burning passion.

Adventures in Paradise utilizes most of the sonic signatures of Exotica: bird calls, vibraphones, animal noises, latin percussion, and ukulele, performed with jazz and oriental flair, drawing from a richer pallette that paints a more compelling picture than much of the blanched white-bread sonic excursions around the world. Of the original Exotica, much of it was recorded as background music for seductions or cocktail parties, or to audition new Hi-Fi systems. In short, it was easy-listening, and the emotional range could be rather bland. A lot of interesting experiments and innovations arose from the era, and Waitiki 7 embraces the strengths and weeds out a lot of the chaff. Standards like "Totem Pole" by Lee Morgan, "Left Arm of Buddha" by Martin Denny, and "Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington, are mixed in with eclectic originals like "Her Majesty's Pearl", a beautiful conversation between piano and vibraphone, "Ned's Redemption", a madcap xylophone ragtime improvisation with slide whistle, and "L'ours Chinois", an oriental-sounding violin concerto that is chilling, but resolves into an upbeat Eastern adventure. They seem to have spent the time wallowing in far-off sounds, getting to know them and how to play them proficiently, rather than merely perfoming generic stereotyping to make something sound weird.

"L'ours Chinois" is a perfect example of all that is great about these young musicians dusting off all this marginal music. Darkness gives way to light, sour into sweet, as Waitiki 7 takes a journey through all of this Earth's music. Anything goes, as was the case with the original creators of Exotica, but unfortunately the genre got trapped in the miasma of style and cliche, and became a parody of itself. According to Wong, "Exotica just sort of stopped in the '60s".
Waitiki 7 are transcending time and space, resurrecting spectres of vanished musical styles and making them dance on the rim of dormant volcanoes. This is vibrant and exciting music, full of dashing and daring-do, captured brilliantly by the folks at Q-Studios in Somerville, Mass. They are correcting some of the sins of the fathers, namely complacency and commercialism, and making them their own, as is the right and privilege of all children. The album is not flawless, the smooth jazz soprano sax of "Ounalao" is a step in the wrong direction in my opinion, but the blood and guts, tears and laughter more than make up for the muzak.

Waitiki 7 are wonderful musicians that are creating exciting worlds and have made one of the most compelling exotica and jazz albums that I've heard this year.

J. Simpson

Here is a new review from Weirdomusic.com: (http://www.weirdomusic.com/reviews/waitiki7/adventuresinparadise.htm)

The Waitiki 7 - Adventures In Paradise [Pass Out Records, 2009]

The press release for the album Adventures in Paradise states that Waitiki 7 is the only band that is performing Exotica live and acoustic, just like it was in the 1950s. They are the rightful heirs of Denny, Lyman, and Esquivel. Randy Wong, one of the principle co-founders used to go see Arthur Lyman play the vibes as a child. Lopaka Colon, who adorns the album with colorful bird calls, follows in the footsteps of his father Augie Colon, who used to do the same for Martin Denny's albums. They have lived and breathed with this music, and as such, it is not merely hipster irony or pastiche that urges them to resurrect this incidental music, but rather a burning passion.

Adventures in Paradise utilizes most of the sonic signatures of Exotica: bird calls, vibraphones, animal noises, latin percussion, and ukulele, performed with jazz and oriental flair, drawing from a richer pallette that paints a more compelling picture than much of the blanched white-bread sonic excursions around the world. Of the original Exotica, much of it was recorded as background music for seductions or cocktail parties, or to audition new Hi-Fi systems. In short, it was easy-listening, and the emotional range could be rather bland. A lot of interesting experiments and innovations arose from the era, and Waitiki 7 embraces the strengths and weeds out a lot of the chaff. Standards like "Totem Pole" by Lee Morgan, "Left Arm of Buddha" by Martin Denny, and "Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington, are mixed in with eclectic originals like "Her Majesty's Pearl", a beautiful conversation between piano and vibraphone, "Ned's Redemption", a madcap xylophone ragtime improvisation with slide whistle, and "L'ours Chinois", an oriental-sounding violin concerto that is chilling, but resolves into an upbeat Eastern adventure. They seem to have spent the time wallowing in far-off sounds, getting to know them and how to play them proficiently, rather than merely perfoming generic stereotyping to make something sound weird.

"L'ours Chinois" is a perfect example of all that is great about these young musicians dusting off all this marginal music. Darkness gives way to light, sour into sweet, as Waitiki 7 takes a journey through all of this Earth's music. Anything goes, as was the case with the original creators of Exotica, but unfortunately the genre got trapped in the miasma of style and cliche, and became a parody of itself. According to Wong, "Exotica just sort of stopped in the '60s".
Waitiki 7 are transcending time and space, resurrecting spectres of vanished musical styles and making them dance on the rim of dormant volcanoes. This is vibrant and exciting music, full of dashing and daring-do, captured brilliantly by the folks at Q-Studios in Somerville, Mass. They are correcting some of the sins of the fathers, namely complacency and commercialism, and making them their own, as is the right and privilege of all children. The album is not flawless, the smooth jazz soprano sax of "Ounalao" is a step in the wrong direction in my opinion, but the blood and guts, tears and laughter more than make up for the muzak.

Waitiki 7 are wonderful musicians that are creating exciting worlds and have made one of the most compelling exotica and jazz albums that I've heard this year.

J. Simpson

oops, sorry for the double post.

If you don't have this cd, BUY IT NOW.
Kudos to the Waitiki 7, this is the real deal for exotica
music.

This just in!

Adventures in Paradise debuts @ #34 on the JazzWeek Top 50 World Chart and is the #1 Most Added Album for its Add Week, as reported by MediaGuide!

Thanks all for your support of our music so far, especially to those of you who have purchased the album!

Let's keep the momentum up and help get exotica/tiki back to the mainstream!

Here's another great review, from Under The Radar

The Waitiki 7
Adventures in Paradise
Pass Out
Aug 26, 2009 WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Cory Frye

As summer simmers ever-so gently into autumn and this Hawaiian septet delivers a light tropical breeze through willing speakers (wait for dusk; the effect is awesome), even listeners garbed in season-appropriate attire might find themselves spectacularly underdressed. Adventures in Paradise is a smart and swank affair, the kind that usually hums between the walls of an air-conditioned nightclub.

Released to commemorate the islands' 50th anniversary as a U.S. state, Paradise effectively marries the cool melodies of 1959 jazz with a contemporary tang that acknowledges the iconic influence (Les Baxter and Martin Denny are among the tunesmiths lovingly acknowledged here) of predecessors while constructing equally timeless originals in a similar spirit.

That aspect's also present in the band's own DNA. Bassist and bandleader Randy Wong grew up around Martin Denny through his family's friendship with Denny's vibraphonist, Arthur Lyman. Waitiki percussionist Lopaka Colon's connection runs even deeper: he's the son of the legendary Augie Colon, whose slaps and trademark bird calls augmented many a Denny groove. Lopaka inherited his father's prodigious talents, weaving a steady thread through Paradise with his own percussive pats and impressive whoops and cries, the latter of which add a remarkable third dimension to an already exotic instrumental dialogue.

And what a conversation. Listen to how Tim Mayer and Mike Dease interact via soprano sax and trombone, respectively, on "Totem Pole." They melt into each other, complete each other's thoughts, and maintain a compelling flow over the distant perpetual cool of Jim Benoit's vibes, which, like Colon's calls, dab the canvas with an extra splash of color (can't imagine "Manila" without those drops) and smooth the edges of Zaccai Curtis' often-chomping piano ("Left Arm of Buddha"). Benoit and Curtis collaborate to a different end on "Her Majesty's Pearl," painting wondrous landscapes over the hushed rush of foamy falls and a lovely interlude from violinist Helen Liu, whose subsequent slide between Benoit's vibe dots and Wong's bass jaunt sets up a most astonishing personal showcase on "L'ours Chinois," where she memorably flaunts her stuff.

As if the music wasn't enough, The Waitiki 7 remain devoted to making Adventures in Paradise as interactive an experience as possible. Within the booklet, the band thoughtfully includes some choice drink recipes guaranteed to refresh just as effectively as tracks 1-13. "Shake like hell with ice cubes," advises one. Consider it done. Heck, you don't need liquor or even a glass for that. (www.waitiki7.com)

Author rating: 7/10
Rate this album
Average reader rating: 8/10

[ Edited by: the mayor of exotica 2009-09-09 14:26 ]

Tim,
How do you live in Boston AND Hawaii??? There's a 'Yo Mama So Fat' joke in there somewhere.

Congrats on all the good press your album is getting. All the guys on alt.binaries.jazz.mp3 were saying good things about it too.

Kidding!
Way to go, guys. Can't wait to hear it live.

love the album...truly is great....this week on the Cocktail Nation I interview Randy Wong about the new release. You can catch it sometime saturday in the US.

Kooper

On 2009-08-27 19:02, koopkooper wrote:
love the album...truly is great....this week on the Cocktail Nation I interview Randy Wong about the new release. You can catch it sometime saturday in the US.

Kooper

Thanks Koop for the interview-- it was nice to talk to you again!

Also, another review just rolled in:

Those who imagine the music made famous by Martin Denny and others has grown fallow or inert will think differently after sitting back and listening.

This time from Audiophile Audition. Check it out: http://www.audaud.com/article?ArticleID=6311

On 2009-08-27 23:15, professahhummingflowah wrote:

Also, another review just rolled in:

This time from Audiophile Audition. Check it out: http://www.audaud.com/article?ArticleID=6311

This is the best review yet!! :)

This is the second review though that credits "Left Arm of Buddha" to Martin Denny. It was actually written by Les Baxter.

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

[ Edited by: Jeff Central 2009-08-28 07:28 ]

Dear professahhummingflowah -

You know last week here in Southern Crappyfornia the weather was triple digit degrees in temperature...what the media has titled the "Station Fire" charred thousands of acres of Los Angeles hillsides and continues to do so today - which in turn creates the most God awful smelling smoke and air quality. My job's dead ahead - Thank God for a job at all but I'm a prisoner of the job, if you know what I mean. All in all another week of sheer HADES!

I arrive home last Friday evening pretty exhausted and basically gasping for precious breath and smelling of forest-fire smoke. I make my usual stop at the mailbox down the street and guess what? MY COPY OF WAITIKI 7 ADVENTURES IN PARADISE ARRIVED!!

At that precise moment I notice my racing heartbeat so what was I to do?

Hastily run home. Turn on the air-conditioning, change into comfy clothing and turn-off the phone. Prepare a day-long anticipated Mai Tai in my favorite tiki mug. Grab my favorite chair, place over my ears my favorite pair of stereo headphones, then quietly slip the CD into the stereo and listen. Listen is so mild a word to express this new listening experience. Its like when I was a kid in the 60s anticipating the latest British rock LP release. From the first second in - I WAS OFF, MAN!

I can't begin to describe the joy, the sheer power, the brilliant musicianship of all of WAITIKI 7. The pacing of this release is superb...a mind-blowing poly-pop psychedelic trip. I mean that in a good way, not in the hippy-dippy use of the P word. Waitiki and especially this new Waitiki 7 release is a sonic psychedelic experience, no sugar cubes necessary :) That's a major compliment professah. I got lost within the music. I forgot my So.Cal crap existence. Because of the music, my mind, my body, my soul was literally IN PARADISE!

The CD eventually ended so what was I to do? I listened to it again..

I know I'm going to hear & experience new things and emotions every time I spin this release. I still do that with the prior two releases of Waitiki to this day and I've listened to them extensively. These releases are what I listen to when I paint for relaxation.

God Bless you Waitiki 7 for the gift of prana (life force) I experience when I listen to your music.

Congratulations!

Check out this quarter's JAZZIZ (Winter 2010, print edition) for a nice write-up of The WAITIKI 7. Really nice article.