Ultra-Lounge Presents: Mondo Exotica

     Imagine sitting in a tiki-themed bar on some exotic beach.  The palm trees sway intoxicatingly in the warm, balmy breeze.  You order a cocktail and light the palm oil candle at your table.  Somewhere close, an exotic bird answers the call of the wild...  It's called "Exotica", and it arrived with the soldiers returning home from WWII.  Suddenly in the 50's everyone everywhere had a taste for the exotic, the mysterious.  Themed restaurants like Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber's started popping up everywhere, and a musical genre was born consisting primarily of music that we sophisticated Americans thought music from Polynesia, Southeast Asia, and Hawaii would or should sound like, although in reality it was complete and total fantasy.  Still, it caught on like wildfire, and with artists like Martin Denny and Les Baxter releasing classic albums like "Exotica" and "Ritual of the Savage", by 1960 the exotica craze was in full swing.  The genre would last until the late 60s and  the Vietnam War, and then would become a forgotten part of musical history.

     Exotica, like swing, experienced a white-hot comeback in the 1990's.  Re-surfacing as "lounge" music, suddenly this long forgotten musical genre was discovered again.  In 1996, along with the Swing Revival, Capitol Records put out the definitive (in my opinion) collection of "lounge" music- "Ultra-Lounge".  Starting with "Mondo Exotica", the collection would brilliantly cover not only exotica, but swing, jazz, space-age pop, mambo... you name it.  Packed with fantastically fun information on the origins of each genre and fabulous photos, the CD sets are amazing time capsules- it's music so original and weird that you can't help but gasp in delight.  I was immediately hooked and within 3 months had the first 22 in the series.

     "Mondo Exotica" is pure mood and atmoshphere.  It's music that requires candlelight and imagination.  This is coolness at its coolest.  You're immediately transported to a dark, smoky Polynesian lounge, or possibly some other faraway land.  Throw in a dash of adventure, romance, and intrigue and what!  Instant action.  These CD's even come with at least 2 different cocktail recipes in each booklet!  Full of classic exotica, it's an extra-ordinary album for the times when Top 40 just won't do.  And the sound quality is nothing short of astonishing.  Mysterious, evocative, sultry, and campy, it's simply some of the coolest music ever recorded.  I know I keep saying "cool" alot, but after listening to this CD you'll understand.  No luau is complete without this playing in the background, so light the tiki torches and pour yourself a Zombie.  You are in for a trip...