MORE STRANGE INSTRUMENTS FOR JESUS

If the GlassDuo album I posted last week had you hungering for more musical wine glasses...

My review of the first Musical Betts album posted here three years ago also applies to this one: "The Musical Betts were a husband-and-wife duo who played (mostly) instrumental versions of gospel songs on such instruments as cowbells, marimba, musical saw, slide guitar, and sleigh bells. And vibraharp, which I think is like a vibraphone. Really cool stuff, but alas I know nuthin' about 'em...It's a bit odd hearing melodies played on instruments like cowbells performed not as Spike Jones-like comedic music, but in a stately, emotional manner."

Well, that was easy. I have nothing further to add except that we know a little (very little) bit more about these two, thanks to this album's liner notes: Mrs. Betts was a "college teacher" in Michigan before she met Rev. Clarence, but we don't even learn her first name! Also, this album's volume level has to be one of the lowest ever. Nice relaxing music for when that tryptophan kicks in.

The Musical Betts "The Golden Bells"

UPDATE: reader Richard L. writes "The low level may be result of a very astute engineer.  The bells have an incredible amount of very high frequency (even ultrasonic) sound levels.  Early analog audio equipment could not handle this at normal levels resulting in a lot of audible artifacts (partial erasure of the tape, thumps, and distortion).  Also, the VU meters would not respond to the quick attack of the bell clapper hits.  This is the sad voice of experience speaking.  One solution was to run everything at -10 dB to get more transient headroom."

TOTALLY NUDE EXOTICA

By request, the Irish folk mashup collection "Straight Outta Ireland" is back up.

When my unbelieving eyes saw that parts of the US were going to be below -50 F (factoring in wind chill), my mission was clear: post that exotica compilation I'd been sitting on. You people need to warm up, and what better way to do that then with this collection of steamy, sultry, pseudo-tropical musics rescued from singles and otherwise non-exotic albums, not unlike our previous "Savage Exotica" comp. 

Like that collection, this features folks you wouldn't expect to be making tiki tunes: The Residents? Sun Ra? (His biography "Space Is The Place" confirms that he was a fan of exotica maestros like Les Baxter.) Sinatra singing with a Hawaiian group? A Rodd Keith song-poem? You bet your aloha. The "Fifth Beatle" Billy Preston, even, as well as famous bandleaders like George Shearing & Xavier Cugat, and contemporary revivalists like Combustible Edison, Cocktails with Joey, and the man whose track gives this album it's name, Fred from the B-52s.  Plenty of unknowns, lounge acts, and private-press records in here, too.  And "Noisy Village" and "A Night In Bedrock Forest" are bizarre, sound-effects-laden novelties, presumably parodies.

TOTALLY NUDE EXOTICA

01 Superions - Totally Nude Island [w/Fred Schneider]
02 Exotic Adventure - Mel Henke
03 Caravan - The Three Suns
04 Tahiti - Rodd Keith
05 Exotic bird-bird - Dickie Harrell
06 Ferry Across The Mersey - Billy Preston [sounding more like "Ferry Cross the Amazon", this is from 1965, years away from Preston joining the Beatles, or his '70s solo fame]
07 cults percussion ensemble - baia [feat. a then-teenaged Evelyn Glennie]
08 Slow Hot Wind (Lujon) - The Trilogy [a Florida lounge act covering Mancini]
09 Poinciana - Art Van Damme [one of many versions of this oft-recorded exotica standard performed here by the world's foremost (only?) jazz accordionist]
10 The Residents - Syx Things to a Cycle (part 1)
11 Solar Drums - Sun Ra & His Mythical Science Arkestra
12 Tabou - Lecuona Cuban Boys [very early 78 rpm version of song that would be a perrenial exotica standard, often spelled "Taboo"]
13 Jungle Fever - The Mighty Accordion Band
14 Frank Sinatra - Bali Hai
15 Tropical Espionage - Cocktails with Joey
16 Noisy Village - Bobby McFadden and Dor ['Dor' is a pre-fame Rod McKuen]
17 Michael Farneti - In the Jungle [sleazy '70s lounge disco!]
18 The Veldt - Combustible Edison
19 Bahía - Xavier Cugat & his Waldorf Astoria Orchestra  (with Bing Crosby)
20 Fred Flintstone - A Night In Bedrock Forest [near as I can tell, this has nothing to do with the actual "Flintstones" show]
21 ブンガワン･ソロ (Bengawan Solo) - Kiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All Stars
22 patrick vian - oreknock
23 george shearing - caravan
 

MUSIC FOR A REAL TIKI THEATER

You may have heard the distressing news today that Fred Willard, a fine comic actor whose work I've always enjoyed, was arrested for performing an obscene public act at a porn theater on Santa Monica Blvd called the Tiki Theater. I used to be intrigued by the place because of the cool tiki signage, til I read about it online. Blech. Smoking crack and doing nasty things to each other seem to be what the patrons go for, not, unfortunately, imbibing umbrella drinks in a tropical environment whilst wearing Hawaiian shirts and listening to music like this 1959 gem (recorded off my red-colored vinyl copy!) from the one-man-band master of organ exotica, Korla Pandit.  It is, like much of Pandit's music (and '50s/'60s exotica in general) rich in haunting and mysterious atmosphere:

[UPDATE 7/31: New Link:]
Korla Pandit "Tropical Magic"

(After clicking the above link, scroll down for a choice of downloading options. You may have to wait a few secs.)

1. The Breeze And I
2. Blue Moon
3. Lovely Hula Hands
4. Trade Winds
5. Tabu
6. Lotus Love
7. Moon Of Manikoora
8. Strange Enchantment
9. Poinciana
10. Tango In D

Pandit wasn't really Indian, as he had always claimed, but was in fact an American black guy named John Roland Redd, a fact not revealed until after his death.  Which was quite a shock to me - I'd actually met and spoken with the man in the '90s when he was performing around town with the Wonderful World of Joey neo-lounge revue, and never doubted his story.  No-one did. He spoke to me in a soft Indian accent, and still wore the bejewelled turban that was his trademark when he used to perform daily on L.A. television back in the '50s.

So let's reclaim the Tiki Theater from the crack-heads and pervs, and put on real tiki shows. That sign's too good to waste. Do it for Korla!  Or whatever his name was!

Music Recorded In A Cave on "The Great Stalacpipe Organ"

Here's some real "underground music," har har!  Put on your lantern helmet and repel with me down into Luray Caverns, Virginia, where an engineer named Leland Sprinkle noticed that striking the cave's rock formations produced musical tones. So, in 1954, he conceived of an organ with little hammers that strike a hollow rock when the organ's keys are depressed. It's quite musical, though with a limited sonic palette. Rather then the usual pipe organ bombast, the Stalacpipe Organ ("The World's Largest Musical Instrument!") is quiet, ghostly. The reverberating splashes of dripping water in the background sounds like sporadic electronic percussion, adding to the ambient feel.


In 2001, United States Naval Academy chapel organist Monte Maxwell recorded a cd full of popular, classical, gospel, and American patriotic standards played on the Organ. Four-and-a-half years ago, when the album was still in print, I posted one song from it, but as it has apparently fallen into a deep cave, here's the whole dang deal:

Midnight In The Caverns: Music From The Great Stalacpipe Organ

Older recordings can be heard here (the original 365 Project), and Week 15 of Tape Findings.

Exotic Sounds of Tiki Gardens

Here we are, back from vacation, ready to...go back on vacation. So let's warm up these darkest depths of winter with one of the most expensive exotica albums ever. Yep, this one goes for hundreds of dollars on ebay, and I have no idea why. For one thing, it's not a music album so much as a tourist souvenir record, complete with nerdy narration. As such, it's a fascinating time-travel back to '60s kitsch America, but the one-man organ band ain't exactly on the order of Les Baxter's complex arrangements (tho Princess Carloa's "Hawaiian Wedding Song" is beautifully sung). Tropical birds, waterfalls, ocean waves, and a volcano also make guest appearances.

Florida's Tiki Gardens was built in 1963. Alas, it was sold in 1990 and demolished - just before the tiki revival.

Exotic Sounds of Tiki Gardens
includes: "Torch Lighting Ceremony," "Selected Sounds of Tiki Gardens," "Polynesian Fantasy Theme Song ."

VINYL-PALOOZA #8: The Occult Organ of Jimmy Rhodes

Late at night, when it's all quiet, the lights are low, cocktail in hand, nothing hits the spot like old organ records - cool, creepy, atmospheric...wistfully nostalgic and romantic, but with a darkness. Best played low in the background. Aaah...

This album sounds like the way it's '40s-ish noir album cover looks, only it was recorded in the late '60s/early '70s. Mr. Rhodes was clearly way out of step with the psychedelic generation, which isn't too surprising: according to his bio (the only thing on the 'net I could find about the guy) he went on to play with Lawrence Welk and made Christian records with his wife.

Jimmy Rhodes "My Best To You"

01 My Best To You
02 Around The World
03 Moritat (Mack The Knife)
04 Beyond The Reef-Hawaiian Wedding Song
05 Lies-The Glory Of Love
06 Alley Cat
07 The Blue Skirt Waltz-The River Seine
08 Miss You
09 Til Tomorrow-Goodnight My Someone
10 The 3rd Man Theme
11 Do You Ever Think Of Me-You Were Meant For Me
12 Avalon-The Sheik Of Araby
13 Que Sera Sera
14 The Portuguese Washerwoman
I featured other occult organs on my "Strange Interludes" collection.
This has been another fine windbag contribution.

VINYL-PALOOZA #1: Space Age Lounge Pop A-go-go!!

It's Vinyl Month here at M4M. Yep, in an attempt to pick up the slack after technical difficulties have kept me from posting much here lately, I'm gonna go thru my 12 inch black round thingies and spend the month featuring some weird old records of drool-worthy obscurity, lovingly hand-ripped from crusty old vinyl on to my new computer (Umm...tell me if the new recording software sounds ok, ok?) Record Store Day is coming up, after all.

We post all kinds of music here, but one thing we can all agree on is the grooviness of '60s Space Age/lounge/ pop. Albums of this sort have been some of the most downloaded 'round these parts, and this one has it all: futuristic Perrey/Kingsley-like keyboards, discotheque dance energy, Roger Roger-esque wackiness, lounge jazz, Latin rhythms, and sample-able funk grooves. It was released by the British library label Studio 1, who had ties to a German company, and I do notice some rather Teutonic-looking names in the writing credits. Otherwise, there's nothing else I've been able to find out about these most talented chaps.

The George King/Joe Corney Organ Sounds

SCIENCE GONE TOO FAR?!?

Some recent musical mad scientists:

"The Chipophone is a homemade 8-bit synthesizer, especially suited for live chiptune playing. It has been built inside an old electronic organ." Yep, Linus Akesson of Sweden can play those bloopy-bleepy video game sounds on a proper keyboard, the kind of two-level organ your grandma might have in her living room. A helluva lot of work went into building his contraption. Dig the 7 minute demo video:



And check his original song:

Linus Akesson "Spellbound" (not the Hitchcock theme)

It's pretty obvious by the number of robot musicians we've covered here that mechanical music is a growing phenomenon, and now that veteran jazz star Pat Metheny has embraced it, maybe other music journalists will finally start to take it seriously. We're here, we're gears, get used to it! (sorry.)

Metheny's The Orchestrion is truly a marvel - it isn't just one robot playing pre-programmed music, it's a whole orchestra. And the level of performance is remarkable. Much robot music is understandably a bit stiff - machines can't really "swing" - but this stuff comes as close to passing a musical Turing Test as any, where you can't tell if you're dealing with artificial or human intelligence.

Musically, he's favoring percussion instruments like xylophones. Easier for robots to play, I guess. And that's fine by me, I like percussion music.

Pat Metheny - "Orchestrion" (excerpt) - Metheny's guitar is the only live instrument here.

It still sounds like typical Metheny fusion jazz. But the Los Angeles-area KarmetiK crew have built a Machine Orchestra with more of an eclectic bent. They are from CalArts, after all, so they have to get all ethnicky 'n' stuff. No albums or mp3s, but there's a video on their site, and another one HERE of their fascinating mixture of robo-rockers and humans.





Thanks to Richard E. and Joshua U.!