exotica.... in the onion

Fun article under the heading "Gateways to Geekery" at the AV Club in the Onion!
Although it wrongly dismisses all modern practictioners, boo!
http://www.avclub.com/articles/exotica,38783/

TC doesn't seem to like the comma in the web address, so here's another link:
http://tinyurl.com/onionexotica

[ Edited by: rupe33 2010-03-04 11:41 ]

Not a bad article at all...definitely a good intro to the genre. I like the warning against being a "completist", although the writer mistakenly absolves Arthur Lyman of any wrongdoing in this area (Love For Sale, anyone?).

Also, where was the accompanying photo taken? It appears to be a Don the Beachcomber location.

[ Edited by: Jason Wickedly 2010-03-04 08:36 ]

Excellent find/article. thanks! He is totally right on the downsized groups and financing etc; it's difficult to create some of those sounds without all the players and I agree that the electronics thing doesn't cut it personally. Some of us are still trying to program 21 pc bands though, and haven't given up :wink: Good to have a quartet as well haha.

Mr. Ho

Overall a pretty nice article that touches the surface of Exotica. But he definitely needs to do a little more research and the statements below were a little unsettling..........

Though there have been a few aborted attempts at reviving it by groups like Pink Martini, Skip Heller, and Combustible Edison, true-blue fans of exotica will always prefer the more authentic sounds of the past to any modern take on the genre.

I do believe that most people prefer the "old school" Exotica that was created during the day. It has a certain innocence to it. I don’t believe that the bands mentioned above were attempting to revive it though. More likely they were creating their own sound while paying homage to musicians that gave them inspiration. Skip Heller produced the reissues of Robert Drasnin’s Voodoo and the Lost Episodes of Les Baxter for the very same reason. He wasn’t looking to get rich but was more interested in making this music available for other people to enjoy.

Well, the name should be a good tip-off, for one thing. The word “exotica” had been around since 1955, but Martin Denny, an upstart bandleader who took the genre by storm, had the audacity to claim the name of the whole genre for his debut album.

Martin Denny did not have the audacity to name the whole genre for his debut album. There was no genre. Furthermore Exotica was a word coined by Simon Waronker specifically for Martin Denny’s first album. I doubt if Marty had anything to do with it.

Esquivel took the genre to a new level, but for that very reason, he’s better approached after you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics.

Esquivel took recording technologies to a new level but not Exotica. In fact most of Esquivel’s music had more to do with creative arrangements, inventive recording techniques and stereo innovation than anything else. I’m glad he was mentioned but Esquivel definitely belongs in the Space Age Bachelor Pad category.

For one thing, avoid almost all the modern revivalist practitioners of exotica. They mean well enough, and some of them even have decent songwriting chops and technical prowess to go with their retro tendencies, but what really sinks them is a matter of economics. The original exotica movement took place in an era when dancing was a regular nightly activity, and the music wasn’t recorded, but played by big bands and orchestras. This isn’t fiscally sound anymore, and few bands can afford to perform weekly with 24 trained musicians; as a result, they simply can’t replicate the huge, lush sound of Denny, Baxter, and their ilk. They have to settle for trying to ape that sound with electronics, and it simply doesn’t work.

I have a LOT of problems with these statements. First, the huge lush sound of Martin Denny, please. Martin Denny’s band was always a group combo. Les Baxter’s orchestra was primarily recorded in the studio. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about playing this music live and on those extremely rare occasions when he did it was mostly pop orchestral hits of the day not Exotica. Robert Drasnin has told me the same thing that this music was never meant to be played live, at least where large orchestrations are concerned. Retro tendencies, obviously this guy has never heard of Waitiki. I don’t believe for a second this is why Randy chose to play this particular brand of music. It’s in his blood. Waitiki is producing some of the best modern day Exotica music I have ever heard. The Stolen Idols are another band that comes to mind where Exotica music is more than just a retro tendency. Also, there is some extremely creative music that is generated completely by electronic means. Kava Kon anyone? There are other bands as well but I think I’ve made my point.

There are plenty of lesser lights in the exotica firmament, from Gene Rains to Robert Drasnin, but they should come long after you’ve familiarized yourself with the best of the best.

I’m sorry but the works of Gene Rains and Robert Drasnin are not lesser lights. These guys produced some of the best Exotica music ever recorded. As my friend James Teitlebaum pointed out “Drasnin raised the bar when it came to recording an all original Exotica masterpiece.”

And you’ll eventually want to give yourself a taste of the genuinely weird Korla Pandit, the mysterious Grandfather Of Exotica, but his stuff is so unusual that you’d no more want to start with it than you’d want to study jazz by starting with Sun Ra.

What’s so unusual about Korla Pandit? He played a Hammond B3 and a piano. I think the author has turban envy.

Finally, a warning: With the possible exception of Arthur Lyman, exotica isn’t a musical genre in which being a completist is rewarding. Baxter, Denny, and all the big names went on to do dozens of other albums, most of which had nothing to do with exotica, and lots of which are dreadfully boring Arthur Murray dance records, tedious easy-listening pop, or meandering instrumental covers of then-popular vocal hits. It’s the kind of stuff that WKRP played before Travis took over as program director, and should be avoided at all costs.

I beg to differ here and won’t even get into it.

Half the fun is discovering this music and I have been rewarded many times!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Actually, I agree with almost everything in this article! The only think I don't agree with is recommending people start with the original exotica genre.

I happen to agree partially with Jim Tikiyaki on this: The older exotica (which I prefer) is just not accesible to the average listener of today.

Most of us were weened on rock and pop, not jazz, big band or 50's easy listening. The exotica of today (what I call "Exotic Surf") combines the best elements of the old with the new.

Just like someone getting into Jazz for the first time. Don't start with Miles, because you probably won't like it. Start with Smooth jazz, then work your way backwards. That's just an example.

As I said before, few bands in the current scene are 100% pure exotica. Stolen Idols and Martini Kings come to mind as coming the closest.

However, and this is a BIG however...to somehow invalidate all the thriving, modern and vital exotic surf bands and neo-exotica bands like Tikiyaki Orchestra (or stupidly not even mention them in the article) was a mistake and a lack of research by this author. We have a very important scene developing, and tiki Central is in fact the epicenter of this new exotic world!

Where I agree with the article mainly is in the description of original exotica as being jazz based. 100%! And I agree with one of the posters above: The exotica bands were mostly smaller groups.

Jeff Central's analysis is spot on, and a necessary companion piece to that article.

On 2010-03-05 07:08, The Granite Tiki wrote:
Jeff Central's analysis is spot on, and a necessary companion piece to that article.

I agree, and Jeff stated some of the same things that I was thinking when I read the article. While the writer has some valid points, and I'm happy to see Exotica get some print, anyone who thinks Martin Denny played with a 20+ piece orchestra has not done their homework.

Interesting article and point of view.
I like that the guy has his own judgment, and don't just give a list of albums without expressing his opinion, and giving advice on what to get.
Like Jeff, of course, I don't agree with everything on the article, and I don't consider Esquivel as Exotica. Well, even Korla Pundit is not truly 100% exotica.
Also, I don't see why Gene Rains or Drasnin would be more difficult to appreciate than Denny or Baxter. I think Drasnin sounds more like Denny than Les Baxter, who is more orchestral and harder to get.
And yeah, Waitiki man. Someone sends him a CD !! And what about Don Tiki, Bo Axelson ? And Drasnin's Voodoo II is some very great contemporary exotica, don't you think ?

Waitiki lovers have jumped all over the comments! :D

It is cool reading these self-proclaimed geeks' comments about how now they want to investigate this, or how they always kinda liked this stuff but didn't know it was a genre and want to investigate further! Yay!

The latter is how I was in 1980 or '81, when I was first exposed to a rockabilly band.
(I was singing in one within a year! :lol: )

Thanks Jeff for your thoughtful comments. I think you should post all or some of it in the comment thread of that article.

It is always nice to see exotica written up in mainstream media. The more people who are introduced/re-introduced to our music the better. I was surprised to see this article and all the comments that follow it! Who knew that so many people outside of our tiki circles had so much to say about exotica?

(I was equally surprised to read the comments by Waitiki fans... looks like we have some serious, vocal mid-atlantic region followers. If any of you are reading this, my thanks for posting that).

I think the author, Mr. Pierce, perhaps confused studio Denny with live Denny. Studio Denny often used large ensembles ala Baxter. But the real magic of Denny (and therefore Lyman and Gene Rains) is the distillation approach he took: finding a way to make those large, lush soundscapes work in small groups that can be performed live. Unfortunately, as many of you know, there are few live recordings in the wild of the Denny group. ("Baked Alaska" and "In Person" are the two most known). The Lyman recordings are all done without overdubs; Mr. Lyman, as I understand it, preferred his listeners to have the experience of hearing on their turntables what they would hear live; nothing more.

As you probably know, I am a proponent of all-live, all-acoustic exotica music. That's the direction that WAITIKI has always gone and will always go. But I don't say that to spite or diminish the work of other modern (or past) groups who mix live instruments with electronics, computer music, synthesizers, etc. It's because of the diversity of approach that I think we can safely say that exotica music lives on; that modern groups should NOT be reviled; and that there is a living, breathing genre out there.

Good analysis, Jeff. Typical drive-by journalism.