Customer Reviews

Mondo Exotica: Ultra Lounge 1

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the one Ultra Lounge CD that sees the most play in my CD rotation. It sets the tone for any activity, be it just staring into the trees through my living room window or driving to work on a day when I don't feel well. I always find it hard to critique Ultra Lounge CDs song by song, since I tend to analyze a lounge CD more by its overall feel than by how one particular song makes me react. But this one is really a great place to start the Ultra Lounge collection, partly because it's the first one in the series and partly because it includes some artists that you should get to know independent of the Ultra Lounge compilations: Martin Denny and Les Baxter. These guys really stand out among lounge artists, and their styles are very unique. Overall the collection, for those not familiar with the "exotica" genre, documents lounge's attempt to "go global". This mostly involved lifting themes and ideas from tropical or island music, and the result was a sub-genre that I find delightful! It is more evocative than a lot of other lounge music and is an essential if you own a pool or give a lot of cocktail parties.

P.S., if you like this stuff, do yourself a favor and try the two albums Tipsy has released.

My best friend gave me this for my birthday. I love it! Its my new soundtrack for my tropical hawaiian hut! Its the kind of music you put on when you're having your cocoabuttered friends over for a little pau-hana bbq. It goes great with any sort of drink with an umbrella! Brings to mind the good old boat days here in Hawaii, when your dad wore that funny Tom Landry hat and striped shorts with his socks pulled up, and your mom wore a really pointy bra. Uncle Kimo comes over and lounges on the lawn under the coconut tree. The ladies mambo-ed while the dads talked story about the boxing matchups while they grilled pineapple lamb kabobs. The tiki torches blaze, the rum is plentiful, and don't be shy about dancing with your shoes off. It makes you just want to play marimba till your hands bleed.

One of the below reviews was mine and I am updating it so it can include my user name.

I had extremely high hopes for this one after the Fuzzy Sampler used two of the best tracks, and was a little disappointed. I never fail to be entranced, though, by the extraordinary "Voodoo Dreams/Voodoo." I don't know what it was about this one that grabbed me and made me love it so much, but it's great. This introduced me to the cool music of one of the forefathers of Lounge music and Father of Exotica, the great Les Baxter, whose fantastic tunes and dazzling orchestrations evocative of the American dream of exotic places far away continue to astound me. It's just a really great song. The tune is beautiful, deliciously played by tenor saxman Plas Johnson, who played every time Baxter needed a saxophone. The whole thing reminds me, better than anything I've ever heard, of the warm, inviting, "Gilligan's Island"-esque vision of old Polynesia, full of lush tropical greenery, native headhunters, and a little romance. It would be perfect for the theme song to a cheesy sixties-style adventure show. It never fails to excite. "Swamp Fire" is a fun song, along similar evocative lines of the above. It is one of the disc's best offerings, but is outdone by Martin Denny's superb cover of Lounge and Exotica classic "Quiet Village." "Village," written and originally done by Les Baxter (you can hear it on "The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter," a must-have!). Baxter, who actually founded Exotica, was somehow forgotten after Denny's cover of "Village" and Denny was now pegged for some reason as the first to do this. It's very unfair to legendary Baxter, who today is sadly little-known, but Denny created good music, too. "Village" is brilliant, and created a lot of noise in its time.

Probably the most crystal-clear picture of Hawaii as people pictured it in the happy '50s is "Alika." You can just see it being played at a suburban backyard pool party! "Hana Mani" pulls this off, too.

"Moon Mist" is an beautiful, mystical song (by Johnny Mercer and Duke Ellington--it sounds like something Johnny Hodges would play), performed by Charlie Barnet with a high female vocal reminiscent of a theremin (the things used to make the spaceship noises in '50s movies). Listen to the opening notes--they'll whisk you away! And of course, there's always "Bali Ha'i" from 'South Pacific.'

Some of the tracks take some getting used to. "Caravan" starts slow but really swings when it gets going. There's some stuff from India with sitars and things. And then there's "Lust." To me, it was just musical screaming that, given time, becomes extraordinarily annoying. Yma Sumac's voice is amazing, yes, but I didn't enjoy any of her songs from this volume. Some will prefer her mambo things from volume two.

Over time, as with other Ultra-Lounge volumes, I grew to like this one. If it doesn't please you, wait, then come back to it. As another reviewer said, it really does have the ability to almost take you away...

I bought this CD at a yard sale on a whim because I like to explore all kinds of music. What I found was a highly entertaining and somewhat hypnotic and erotic album. I love it! I listen to it late at night with only a few candles burning and dance around my living room like a fool. It's definitly a mood booster. I am looking for more albums just like it.

This cd is wonderful for the home or the drive there. The initial track had my family concerned about me, what with the wild yelling and all on it, but it smokes along nicely after that. Great after-dance listening for the belly dancers out there. You can move to this, but fits better in the lounge catagory. Highly recommended!

If you're looking for genuine tiki lounge music, get this instead of the Tiki Sampler. This collection of songs celebrates the 50s/60s-vintage exotic music by Les Baxter, Martin Denny, and others.

Some of the CD highlights to keep your lounge stoked include:
"Caravan" - woodwinds play mysterious melody over laidback drum rhythms, joined by vibraphone and electric guitar,
"Hypnotique" - slow mesmerizing East Indian mood featuring reeds and piano with sitar,
"Alika" - ultra laidback Hawaiian theme with guitar and vibraphone,
"Hana Maui" - another Hawaiian theme with a majestic feel that makes me think of arriving by plane over the volcanos and clouds, includes some very loungy piano action,
"Voodoo Dreams" - a Les Baxter song featuring smokin' saxophone and coupled with a previously unreleased song called "Voodoo" which has a jungle chants theme,
"Jungle Madness" - classic Tiki lounge song by Martin Denny, with bird/jungle effects,
"Babalu" - quite different from the rest because it seems completely real, too intense for casual listening,
"Simba" - hypnotically propulsive with bass-toned chanting joined by dream-like strings and choir,
"Bali Ha'i" - a South Pacific classic featuring exotic female voice,
"Pyramid Of The Sun" - orchestral opening evokes feeling of viewing a pyramid at sunrise, segues into jazzy flute (very relaxing!) and has a great ending,
"Quiet Village" - the must-have tiki lounge classic by Martin Denny.

From a true ultra lounge fan, this is one of my favorite in the entire series. It combines all the wonderful elements of ultra lounge music: the mystery, the humor, the dreamy mood, and the originality. This particular CD is excellent for the novice ultra lounger who wants a good introduction into the world of ultra lounge.

Along with "The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter". This CD is the first and by far the best in the Ultra Lounge series, because it contains so much authentic exotica and less Ultra Lounge, the big band Rat Pack-style crooning that Generation X and Y "swingers" (mostly in L.A.) suddenly thought was cool in the mid-90's, only to move on to something else in about a year. This is atmospheric music influenced by the traditional music of far away lands, ranging from light jazz ("Voodoo") to Twilight-Zonish eerieness ("Bali H'ai") to exotica erotica ("Moon Mist"), with a few novelty stereo spectaculars thrown in and ending with an original African folk song about sleepy lions ("Wimoweh"). Great for backyard BBQ's, pool parties, and for remembering a time when America was a prosperous and respected country, before the evaporation and demonization of Americana and American culture, before urban street thug music and culture became suburban and took over whatever country I am now living in. You won't hear this great music blasting out over car stereo speakers at a city stoplight unless you are the one doing it.

The sound quality of the Ultra-Lounge series is excellent, even though the songs were recorded mostly in the 50's and 60's. Capitol Records packs each CD with carefully chosen tracks consistent with the theme of the particular volume in the series. Many of the selections that appear here aren't available elsewhere, either because the original album on which the song appeared is out of print, or because the song was issued as a single and never collected in an album. A few 'previously unreleased' tracks also appear here. This series is a wonderful introduction to the music of a by-gone era, and each album includes detailed notes on each track (artist, writers, date recorded, how released, etc.). I heartily recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this type of music.

I have purchased several of the other Ultra Lounge series, and this one is definately one of my favoites. The exotic sounds are much different than the music on the other compilations, from the different take on Misirlou to the wacky wildness of Jungle Madness. Anyone who is a fan of the Ultra Lounge series should check this out, but be warned, this is mostly an instrumental album.