Search - Various Artists :: Mondo Exotica: Ultra Lounge 1

Where's my Pina Colada?

Robin Min | Mililani, Hawaii | 05/25/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

My pick for best of the Ultra-Lounge series!

Brooke Pennington | Pocatello, ID USA | 03/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Not Quite What I Expected, But Still Good

loungelizard7 | 05/07/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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..."