EXOTICA: NOW!

I was in a used/collectable record store a year or two ago when I overheard two store employees talking about the lounge/exotica revival of the '90s: "Boy, that came and went in no time, didn't it?" Er, not quite. Yes, record labels exhausted their archives of oldies they could repackage, and the media moved on to other things, but many of us carried on just as as we had before my local mall opened and closed an Ultra-Lounge store.

If tiki/lounge is dead, someone forgot to tell Shag - the man's not just an artist, he's a cottage industry. Tiki/lounge asthetics have infiltrated the mainstream. In fact, the above-mentioned mall recently opened a Hawaiian/tiki themed store. Am I going to be too hip and complain about this? Nu-uh. I remember '80s decor fads that make tiki, no matter how trendy, infinitely preferable. Nagel prints, anyone? Didn't think so.

It's probably wise to not try and recreate the '50s as much as update them, as a new mashup cat named The RevTed has done with this Henry Mancini vs Beach Boys mix:

The RevTed: "God Lujon Knows"

In the mashup world, "God Only Knows" is known as the Acapella of Death - many mixers have been drawn to its beauty, only to have their tune dashed upon the rocks of harmonic difficulty. The Rev does as good a job as anyone.

England's Voodoo Trombone Quartet actually started off as one-man mashup machine Braces Tower before hiring so many musicians to realize his exotic big-band a-go-go fantasies that they are now far more then a quartet. And trombones ain't the half of it.

Voodoo Trombone Quartet: "Monster Island" - from their album. Only available on a British label for now, unfortunately, crammed as it is with swank numbers like "Voodoo Juju" and "Your Pleasure Is Our Pleasure."