Soulful Strings are No. 6

Lounge Appeal: 9 Hipness: 10

In the sixties it seemed that every label especially budget labels had to have their strings band that played corny versions of the latest hits. There were such forgettable groups as The Knightsbridge Strings, The Melachrino Strings, The Cheezy Strings well you get the idea.

One strings group though sounded totally different, they sounded like the backing band for the soul group from heaven and they were of course Richard Evans Soulful Strings. They played lots of Evan's originals in with the covers and even the covers sounded funky and great.

Here then is my compilation in which I have concentrated on their funky side with lots of originals although any of their tunes could have been included. Just listen to Zambezi and Chocolate Candy for funk at its grandest.

Link 1 2 Download both links and unzip the first to get the whole thing.

Mac users note download a freeware app called Split & Concat: http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/Split&Concat/

This will concatenate parts 1 and 2 into a single ZIP file which can be expanded normally.

Esquivel!! - Number 7

Lounge Appeal: 9 Hipness: 9

Well what can you say about the master of lounge music? No 7 but he easily could have been number 1. An amazing diversity of music so overwhelming in fact I've just posted a very good compilation of his best and most quirky stuff. He's still so popular that a quick search will probably find a fantastic selection of his albums still available.

Its not many artists who master so many different styles, ping pong stereo, latinesque, exotica, vocalese the list goes on. If you're one of those rare creatures who haven't heard of Senor Esquivel the Mexican genius or have examples of his work then this comp is an excellent place to start.

Link

Larry Page is Number 8

Lounge Appeal: 8 Hipness: 8

Larry 'who' I hear you say, well he had some quite groovy albums in the 60s and 70s. One of my favourite lounge albums featuring well known beat artists is his Kinky Music from 1965 and I'm pretty sure the Kinks are in the mix somewhere and I think that's them on the cover. The album's right up there with the Hollyridge Strings Play The Beatles and Andrew Oldham's Stones homage.

Anyhow here's Larry with quite a bit of the aforesaid Kinky album and a good smattering of some of his funky stuff including some disco and I don't usually like disco.

Track list is in the comments.

Link

Be afraid....

After devouring the family Johnny still felt hungry, thank goodness for Van Camp's.

Sorry had to show this demonic kids ad from the golden 50s.

I want one!

1960 Chrysler New Yorker in Terra Cotta.

There was no such thing as sky high petrol prices in 1960.

More here including groovy retro space art.

Trouser snake

The secret of longiveity

I am about to tell you one of the greatest secrets known to man how to live a long and active life. Well not me actually its Ernest Borgnine who tells us at the age of 91 why he's more active than men half his age.

Just don't shake his hand!

Waitiki - Rare Stuff

Lounge Appeal: 7 Hipness: 7

There's been a couple of Waitiki albums floating around the blogosphere lately and they are one of the best pure exotica groups playing at the moment. To try out Sharebee which Brondonio tells me is the best way to share files and to share some rare stuff that Waitiki made available and most of which is no longer around I have compiled them and here they are. There's some demos, live radio broadcasts and even an interview, all interesting stuff. There's some good videos on their site too.

Just to whet your appetite there's a good version of Quiet Village in there.

Link

Kava Kon

Lounge Appeal: 8 Hipness: 7

Download now no longer available. There some tracks on their myspace page link below or buy from CDBaby or some other source.

It has nice exotica sounds but sounds like an electronica production with liberal use of synths and effects but having said that its still very well done.

I have re-evaluated this album and I think its a fine example of modern exotica and highly recommended.

Hear some tracks here

Hugo Montenegro Lounge King No 9

Hugo Montenegro: Lounge Appeal: 8* Hipness: 7*

Perhaps my most represented lounge artist with the possible exception of another great man with the same initials Montenegro's name sounded like he should be a Balkan hitman and his records certainly stood out on the shelves.

He excelled at popular tunes using cool vocals, reinvented spaghetti western soundtracks and really good moog and other synth noodlings. He is one of the few artists where you can pluck out just about any tune from his repetoire and it could be included in a compilation with no loss of quality. He is one if the easiest artists I have compiled with choosing stuff to leave out being the only problem.

I've included some of his more obscure stuff so should be something here for everyone. I recommend his incredibly hip version of Stevie Wonder's Superstition for special attention but its all great stuff and don't forget his ultimate take on the Our Man Flint theme.

Track list in comments (while you're there....).

Vol 1 Vol 2

Ron Goodwin is No. 10

Ron Goodwin Lounge appeal: 8* Hipness: 2*

I've decided to feature compilations that focus on my 10 favourite lounge artists. You probably won't agree with some of my choices. For instance there's no Martin Denny or Les Baxter as I figure they are mainly exotica artists and their lounge music while excellent wasn't quite as good as their exotica stuff. Also artists that don't have an extensive catalog or at least I don't have many examples of their work aren't featured either. The competition was fierce and Ive had to leave out some legends such as Mauriat, Legrand and the 3 Suns.

My first exposure to exotica was when I was around 13 and my neighbour played me this record with a cover showing a village hut scene and the tune had weird and wonderful bird calls. It was of course Quiet Village and the album was an Australian pressing of Arthur Lyman's album of the same name. Likewise my first exposure to lounge music was the theme to The Trap by somebody called Ron Goodwin and it really stood out on a radio featuring British beat groups. I still love that tune and it leads of my compilation of my number 10 choice the great Ron Goodwin. These compilations will be all good stuff with no filler or dreck at least I hope you'll agree that's the case. There's a good selection of his themes blended with more exotica flavoured tracks.

Track list in comments.

Link

Sex Mob Sexotica

Lounge Appeal: 5* Hipness: 7*

Who said exotica was dead? Here's New York's avant garde jazz group Sex Mob's take on it. Their Bond album is worth checking out too.

This album is available here at Listen the Silence blog. Thanks to Paul for the heads up on this one.

Lounge is alive!

Lounge Appeal: 8* Hipness: 9*

Lounge music in its many guises is still very much alive today particularly with instrumental groups and film soundtracks. Just to prove it here's my latest compilation featuring some of my favourite (mostly) contemporary lounge tunes.

The file is over 100mbs but I have made it a Trafficshare download which Rapidshare tells me treats everybody as a premium user. If you have any problems downloading this file let me know.

Track List

01. James Taylor Quartet - [Lounge isnt dead #01] The Austin Power's Theme
02. Sex Mob - [Lounge isnt dead #02] Dr. Yes
03. Waitiki - [Lounge isnt dead #03] Primativa
04. 8FatFat8, Davis, Julio - [Lounge isnt dead #04] Clutch Cargo Cult
05. Sad Salamanders - [Lounge isnt dead #05] Ritual Of The Bachelor Pad
06. Quiet Village - [Lounge isnt dead #06] Singing Sand
07. Irving Szathmary, Gordon Goodwin & The Hollywood Studio Symphony - [Lounge isnt dead #07] Get Smart Theme
08. Thomas Newman - [Lounge isnt dead #08] Wall-E
09. Combustible Edison - [Lounge isnt dead #09] Breakfast At Denny's
10. Don Tiki - [Lounge isnt dead #10] Hot Like Lava
11. Ape - [Lounge isnt dead #11] Caravan
12. The Moon-Rays - [Lounge isnt dead #12] Hyponitique/Our Man Flint
13. Voodoo Court - [Lounge isnt dead #13] 007 - Goldfinger
14. The Weisstronauts - [Lounge isnt dead #14] I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
15. The Ventures - [Lounge isnt dead #15] Moon of Manakoora
16. The Hellecasters - [Lounge isnt dead #16] Valley of the Pharaohs
17. The Boss Martians - [Lounge isnt dead #17] Malaguena
18. Pollo Del Mar - [Lounge isnt dead #18] Hall Of The Mountain King
19. Los Straitjackets - [Lounge isnt dead #19] Out Of The Shadows
20. Goldentones - [Lounge isnt dead #20] Miserlou
21. CHRIS REA - [Lounge isnt dead #21] 008 Jimmy Bond
22. Anton Karas - [Lounge isnt dead #22] The Third Man Theme
23. Ben Vaughn - [Lounge isnt dead #23] Our Favorite Martian
24. The Hillbilly Soul Surfers - [Lounge isnt dead #24] Beyond The Reef

Link

Hungry Cannibals

Lounge Appeal: 8* Hipness: 6*

This rather interesting looking album can be found here. Look down the page for the entry. Thanks to yesyesyes for the heads up on that one and cheezefactory for the share. Lots of other cheezalicious and hilarious stuff in there too.

Reminds me of a scene from a Marx Bros film where Groucho is asked by the usual matriach whether he is a man or a mouse his answer was "put down a piece of cheese and you'll find out". I used this answer on many occasions when I was asked this same thing with regularity by whichever female I happened to be with at the time. This either says something about me or my choice of female companion.



Sex Appeal: -1,000,000 Hipness: 0

Living proof being as rich as Croesus doesn't mean you can look good or even afford a decent rug.

Riz Ortolani - The 7th Dawn

Lounge Appeal: 5* Hipness: 6*

From Paul Troon here's an exotic film score from one of Italy's finest film composers Riz Ortolani. I'd never heard of this film or score before so its a nice treat for me as well.

Link

The party might be over

EXTRA!! Poll now in sidebar, vote for your favourite file sharer.

Some multiple sharing sites like Shareoneall have recently been attacked by a European rights group called GEMA. Shareoneall has had to shutdown. It doesnt really effect me yet because all my stuff is on Rapidshare although most older files are buffered through Lix.in.

Rapidshare is appealing a German Court ruling see the following article. This is disturbing and could effect the whole blog scene in a huge way. I know if it happens all my file shares will disappear overnight.

Rapidshare: We're going to appeal shut-down ruling

02/15 2008 | 12:09 PM

Posted by: Janko Roettgers

Rapidshare has announced that it is going to appeal a recent ruling of a German court that could have potentially forced the company to shut down its website. A Dusseldorf court ruled in January that Rapidshare has to block access to musical works from rights holders that are represented by the German music rights group Gema. The ruling included a mandate to "take measures that might have the risk of making Rapidshare's service substantially less attractive or even close it down completely."

The company has now told the German online magazine Netzwelt.de that it is going to appeal the ruling. "Rapidshare wants to clarify the legal situation for hosters", a representative told the magazine. She explained that there have been different rulings with sometimes contradictory requirements for file hosters in the past, and argued that it is impossible for Rapidshare to filter its uploads because files can be renamed, split up or saved in different formats.

Rapidshare's spokesperson also added that not all uploads of musical works were illegal, because music fans could use Rapidshare to make back-ups of their own MP3s for personal use without giving the links to anyone else.

Gema on the other hand told Netzwelt that it is in settlement negotiations with Rapidshare but didn't want to comment on any details. It will be interesting to see if the two sides can actually agree on a solution.

If there's a settlement Rapidshare will disappear as we know it rather like Napster. Another way will be found but it'll cause massive problems.

Spotnicks - The Rocket Man

The Spotnicks - The Rocket Man (1962)
by Salut-les-copains

Lounge Appeal: 4 Weirdness: 9

I think this is where Man or Astroman got their ideas. A nicely bizarre clip of the Spotnicks from the early sixties doing Rocket Man and no its not the Elton John song. Dig those helmets in some shots they look like they're made from foam rubber.