Michael Giacchino - Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen, Vol. 1

I don't know if anyone caught this, but Michael Giacchino has released a tiki album representing the first half of ALL of his soundtracks. Instead of doing the normal thing like a greatest hits album, Giacchino wanted to show his love for the genre by making a exotica album instead.

Giacchino is responsible for a LOT of soundtracks. That he decided to make an exotica style album is no small thing. I did not know I needed tiki versions of tracks from LOST and the Star Trek reboot movies until listening to this but now I do.

“This album was inspired by the work of Lyman and Denny,” Giacchino said. “What would they do with the ‘Star Trek’ theme? Or video games like ‘Medal of Honor’? It was a way for me to play in that world I loved so much growing up. I thought it would be fun to create a fantasy world, where this album was recorded back in 1967 and then lost, only to resurface today.”

The good news is that there are 23 tracks on the first collection. That's also the bad news, because there are simply too many tracks and there is a stronger album in here but the need to cover EVERY soundtrack makes for a repetitive listen. Also, although the work was inspired by Lyman and Denny, the focus is on the instrumentation which doesn't exactly vary from track to track like it would on a Martin Denny album. All the instruments are there but none of the environment. Lyman/Denny would try to take you to a place, but the tracks on this album mostly stay in the background, with only the melodies to differ with each song.

I really enjoyed the "Life and Death" tiki version from the LOST soundtrack, a version that changes the juxtaposition of joy and sadness from the original to tranquil melancholy. The bombast of "Enterprising Young Men" from Star Trek turns into a spy thriller.

Anyways, I missed this one up until now. Glad I found it though!

Thanks for this! I have most of his LPs but had not heard of this one.

Super find! Listening now....thanks!

thanks for the tip - overstuffed, yes, but lots of cool stuff here.

My colored vinyl set arrived this week. Waking up to it now! Very, very good and sounds so much better coming through my 5.1 stereo than it does through my laptop.