Customer Reviews

Tamboo / Skins

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Never mind about exotica, tiki, virtual tourism, disney soundtracks, white suburban 1950s. Did Les Baxter really think like that?

Both these albums showcase exactly what Les Baxter's music was all about - haunting melodies, luscious harmonies, ingenious and often downright experimental arrangements and - more than anything - a wonderful, sparkling compositional mind with surprising subtlety and emotional depth. Probably some of the most atmospheric music you will ever hear.

People speaking of Les Baxter as "Easy Listening" is like labelling Brian Wilson simply as "Classic Rock". Was "Pet Sounds" about sun surf and girls? Should tracks like "Mozambique" and "Oasis Of Dakhla" really just be labelled as suburbia , space age pop or lounge music? There's far too much going on here and way too much depth in those melody lines for this music to be simply pigeonholed as "Exotica". Les Baxter is in a different league altogether.

Highly recommended cd release.

Also look out for "The Exotic Moods Of...." double cd compilation which is the best place to start if you're new to Les Baxter.

More please!!

Les Baxter always got less attention that quasi-competitor Martin Denny, but I find his orchestrations peppier, indeed a bit campier, but more colorful and much more fun. "Tamboo" isn't quite as wonderful as Baxter's "Ritual of the Savage"(which I found as an import), but it picks up after the first few tracks and has some brilliantly mad, sparkling moments of manic taboo, a collage of primitive sounds that will put you in the heart of the Amazon(or Disney's Jungle Cruise ride, take your pick). "Skins" is a somewhat more intimate album, but has just as many pleasures. Also, the cover art is worth the price alone. Fabulous stuff for bachelor and bachelorette pads.

I enjoyed the first part of this CD - nice exotica type mix - but wasn't too crazy about the "skins" part - not enough melody for me - just lots of banging on drums!

Back in the 1950s, when mom stayed home, and a family wanted tho stop worrying about the Soviets for an evening, people had time to don a straw hat, put tikki torches in the backyard, and play for awhile.

Les Baxter provided a perfect soundtrack for such suburbia games: his lounge music was the soundtrack to a world before rock and roll, or at least before rock and roll became a cultural stable. Watch old sitcoms, industrial films, duck and cover adverts, and this type of music was the wallpaper of the 1950s.

And if you listen to the heavy strings, angelic singers, all the cotton on these albums, you will hear lounge when it really was part of the culture, not cultural irony.


This is nice, soft, lilting, pretty music. Now, most people who buy and listen to material like this do it with a degree of cheese taste, or put it in other context like a free form FM DJ would. Once, I heard a Les Baxter track segued on WFMU into Sugarloaf's "Green-Eyed Lady," and the hook that bound them sounded fantastic.

But even if you like this stuff straight, sometimes, this music is pretty good

"Skins" could very well be the best bongo album ever. A true classic
from the beatnik era. The bonus album "Tamboo" is not bad either.

TWO OF THE BEST LES BAXTER EXOTICA/LOUNG MUSIC RECORDS RELEASED IN THE 1950'S- EARLY 1960'S. YOU WILL WANT TO SIT BACK WITH AN EXOTIC COCKTAIL (THE KIND WITH AN TINY UMBRELLA STICKING OUT OF THE TOP) WHEN YO UHEAR THIS MUSIC. TRULY ORIGINAL FOR ITS' TIME, EVEN THOUGH IT MAY SOUND DATED TODAY. BUT THE GREAT RECORDING SOUND AND RE-MIXING MAKE IT WORTH IT.

How do you describe exotica to people who don't know what it is? Middle aged white guys writing Polynesian music in the 1950's? American cultural imperialism rewriting native music to make it less threatening to Ward and June Cleaver? Or a few composers who drew non-Western influenes into the lounge style of the time? Whatever the answer is exotica is wonderous music. To quote the notes that come with it: "Put a Baxter record on the hi-fi and the kids, dogs, and lawn mower are transformed into a realm of half-naked women, jungle verandas, and tropical libations." It's tiki escapism. As for the albums included, Tamboo is great, a perfect album of exotica by one of the genre's masters. Each song is a mood piece taking the listener to a places such as Tehren, Havana, and Rio. But these are safe places where nothing bad happens and the temperature is always perfect, idealized sonic locales for relaxing with a cool blue drink. Skins on the other hand is emphasizes drums. That creates a rater jarring transition from one album to the other. While fine on its own, it seems an odd choice to accompany Tamboo. Still its great to have these on CD. Exotica has been much maligned and forgotten. People like Baxter, Martin Denny, and Arthur Lyman were all geniuses at what they did. As odd as the genre is it should not be forgotten again.

What a pleasure seeing these albums finally released on CD. The exotic music of Tamboo was so ahead of its time. The reproduction is very good even though it was recorded in monophonic. Les Baxter was such a great inovator of special sounds and only lately are people recognizing what beautiful and original music he produced. This album is a joy to listen to and one can only hope more of his "exotic" albums become available.

Idly perusing Amazon's pages led me to the music that I had thought so passionate in 1957. I ordered Tamboo and discovered that 50 years later the music was pale, colorless. The music hasn't changed, of course, but time has moved on. What was avante garde then is relegated to the ordinary now. Still, Tamboo is a great listen for gentle background along with some reminiscing!