Orange Bear Party Indie

Anyone who DJs on turntable.fm gets a reputation for playing certain kinds of music. Mine, somewhat deservedly, is for long songs and dance music. But I like lots of other music that I rarely play on TT. And since I'm on vacation in Hawaii, so I decided to do something a little different this time: exotica music. If you're not familiar with the "genre" of exotica, there are a couple of great primers here and here, but the basic idea is that it's white people making an ersatz, romanticized version of "ethnic", often tropical music, inspired by the post-war return of American soldiers from the Oceania and the Pacific theater, the occupation of Japan, and Hawaiian statehood. It's less a true genre than a state of mind, so if think "Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland", you're like 75% there. As you might imagine, it's a bit complicated to enjoy this kind of music as a culturally aware person in 2013, but I do. It's practically the only kind of music that I really that I'd classify as a "guilty pleasure". Anyway, enough navel gazing. This is an hour long exotica mix, mixing classics and rarities, Golden Age and modern era. It's designed to (mostly) fade into the background, perfectly optimized for your luau, lounge, smoking room, BBQ, jungle cruise, safari, or private beach. There are no synthesizers, electronics, guitar feedback, four on the floor, long songs, or remixes in sight. There are, however, lots of pops, clicks, and surface noise on some of these songs, since they were ripped from vinyl LPs or 45s. 

Soundcloud stream/download  Mediafire direct download 1.  Intro - Aloha Malahini! 

2.  Martin Denny - Quiet Village (Original Version) 

3.  Al Simms Sextet - (Jungle) Slave Dance 

4.  The Blue Jeans - Moon Mist 

5.  The Islanders - Forbidden Island 

6.  Jack La Forge - The Cleopatra Kick 

7.  Poss Miyazaki - Ta-Huwahuwai 

8.  Frank Hunter - White Goddess 

9.  Stanley Black and His Orchestra - By The Waters Of Minnetonka 

10.  The Surfmen - Taboo 

11.  Elmo Garcia and His Orchestra - Island Love Chant 

12.  Les Baxter - Coronation 

13.  Michel Magne - Tropical 

14.  The Afro-Americans, Sticks Evans, Lila St. John - Africa Laments

15.  Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra - Jungle Fantasy 

16.  Joe "Fingers" Carr & 80 Drums Around the World - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

17.  Big Walter and the Thunderbirds - Watusie Freeze, Part 1 

18.  The Embers and Joe "Mack" Lackey - Alexandria 

19.  Clark Terry - Swahili 

20.  Don Reed & His Orchestra featuring The Voice Of Love - Nature Boy 

21.  John Barry - Thunderball 

22.  The Tikiyaki Orchestra - In Search of Mei Ting 

23.  Dick Hyman - Caravan 

24.  Gene Rains - Hana Maui 

Hey, it's RQA8. So there's this long-running electronic dance program on BBC Radio One called The Essential Mix, where they hand over the airwaves to internationally famous or up and coming DJs and musicians to make a 2 hour mix of music of suitable for listening to at home as well as in a club. 

Although I'm not a internationally famous DJ, I thought it would be fun to make the kind of mix I'd make if I were invited to the show. And since my 30 K milestone is coming up, it seemed like the perfect chance to play the mix in TT, putting the tracklist in the chat as we went along. I've wrangled together some of my favorite pop, krautrock, nu-disco, etc. jams into a 2 hour dance mix for your listening pleasure. It's been a labor of love to put this together, and I hope you enjoy it.

The full version of my mix will be available for download over at my friend's free music blog, Melodic Expectation, tomorrow.