Robert Drasnin's Exotic Excursion VS Voodoo

I have a question and I apologize if it's been mentioned here previously, I couldn't find it. There are two versions of Robert Drasnin's Voodoo on the market, the 1996 "Exotic Excursion" by Simitar which claims to be digitally remastered from the original analog multitrack masters and the 1996 "Voodoo!" release by Dionysus Records which I can't find the claim for the source. Has anyone listened to both of these and been able to compare? I have listened to them on Apple Music and it seems like Exotic Excursion is the superior sounding recording, but it's Apple Music and can't be too sure. I'm looking to buy one of them used and both are fairly expensive so any help in deciding is greatly appreciated.

Be aware that Exotic Excursion only has 10 of the original 12 tracks. So, for me, this disqualifies it as a re-release.

Thank you so much for the heads up! So the master-sourced release has 10 tracks but the LP sourced release has all 12? That muddies things up!

Correct the “Excursion” was indeed taken from the masters. However I’m pretty certain they were taken from the stereo mixed masters and definitely not a completely new remix of the multitracks if there even was a multitrack recording of the original sessions. I got the story directly from Bob Drasnin years ago. He told me that when Dionysus was wanting to reissue “Voodoo”, he inquired with Tops about the masters. They told him that they no longer existed. So he and Lee Joseph used a virgin copy of Bob’s LP as the Dionysus source. This included all the original tracks. However around that same time “Exotic Excursion” was released by Pickick on CD which Bob took to mean that Tops had not been forthcoming about the existence of the masters. The “Excursion” rerelease is indeed very clean and sounds to be sourced from, if not THE masters, a quality copy of them at least. The only down side is that Pickwick had a policy of only issuing 10 songs (Bob said). So they cut 2 songs.

The sound quality of the Dionysus reissue is excellent though. They decided not to run the recording through “cleaning” software in order to try to keep it as original as possible. I am curious where the master tapes are now and if Pickwick digitized all 12 songs when they ran the tapes.

Wow, that's quite a story. Thank you very much for the backstory behind this amazing album. It's unfortunate that Robert Drasnin did not have access to his own masters, and that they do or at least did exist. Here's to hoping that the full 12 tracks appear somewhere from the masters. This album really deserves that. Thanks again for your reply.

Also thank you for Lahaina Sunset -- I received my copy and it truly is sublime. Having the two versions, one with ambient sound and the other was an unexpected bonus. Truly a great addition to the exotica soundscape with its Rains/Lyman vibe. I hope you continue making more music!

[ Edited by ClayBouTiki on 2023-08-28 17:54:34 ]

Both releases are worth having, if you can find them for a good price anymore. I added the two tracks from the Dionysus to the abridged version, which is from the masters. I had to boost the volume on those two slightly to match the levels on the abridged version.

[ Edited by StolenIdols on 2023-09-02 08:15:50 ]

I was afraid that was going to be the solution! But thanks!

There is also another copy of the Voodoo! album that appears on the Exotic World (2010) compilation, although all twelve tracks are scattered across the three discs. Comparing it to the Dionysis release on Apple Music, it sounds a little more cleaned up but slightly less dynamic to my untrained ears. Didn’t realize it had all twelve tracks on it! Does anyone know how this copy compares to the Dionysis release?

That appears to be a grey market release, so all bets are off. If they simply cloned the existing digital versions, it may be worthwhile. Or, they could have mastered it from 8-tracks that have been baking in a hot car all summer.

It is a shame that all 12 tracks haven’t been digitally released from the masters. I also hope that someone somewhere will get them fully digitized and preserved. Another thing that Bob Drasnin told me was that Dave Pell was the photographer of the original “Voodoo” cover art. I would also dearly love to see the outtake photos from that session too

I would also dearly love to see a coffee table book just on exotica LP covers, like there are for rock albums ...