Follow/contact
The other site
From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Category Archives: Exotica/Space-Age
The sea
The sea. Its mystery and expanse has inspired innumerable poets, writers, artists and musicians throughout the millennia, its endless capacity for beauty and violence has silenced individuals not usually given to speechless wonder. Cursed, mythologized, prayed to, every seafaring culture … Continue reading
Naked City Latino
Few of Tinseltown’s directors, writers, cinematographers or creative minds – and certainly none of its soundtrack and television composers – turned a blind eye to opportunism in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Each location or genre came with its familiar set … Continue reading
Outré refugees
Dig a little below the surface and you’ll find in our cumulative 45 rpm output a discography of the strangest musical impulses. Rare were the financial returns great for the independently pressed 45 record but rare was its overhead, either. … Continue reading
Surf exotica
If it was the instrumental that kept rock ‘n’ roll simmering in the murky years between its ‘50s inception and arrival of the British Invasion in 1963, then surf music would be the instrumental’s final, most colorful efflorescence. Excited by … Continue reading
Vocal group exotica
A post-War vocal harmony group like the Flamingos could summon angels with a haunting ballad like “I Only Have Eyes For You.” So why not, with a bit of tweaking, conjure the reverie of the faraway jungle isles as well? … Continue reading
Cinema funky
Just as its antecedents in the mid-‘60s had their sitar interludes and fuzztone atmospherics, the hipper cinema of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s oozed with wah-wah guitars, jazz basslines and funky backbeats. And why not? Whatever Tinseltown’s machinations, film … Continue reading
2007/09/24
Posted in Exotica/Space-Age, Jazz Obscura, Latin, Miscellaneous Flotsam, Now Sound, Soul
7 Comments
Office Naps Middle Eastern Mix
The third installment of the Office Naps mix, and it’s all over the place. From Turkish wah-wah guitars and ’60s garage ragas to Yusef Lateef’s Mecca-wise wail, it’s Middle Eastern only in the loosest possible sense of the term. If … Continue reading
Struck wordless
You’ll hear them sometimes on easy-listening records of the ‘50s and ‘60s, theremin-throated songbirds, their voices swooning, wailing and wordlessly calling in a celestial llllaaaahhhhhhhhs. Jungle exotica, easy-listening themes for outer space, atmospheric soundtrack pieces, and lush orchestral confections: these … Continue reading
