A sweet follow up to Martin Denny's Taste Of Honey album – one that's got a great blend of piano, vibes, and percussion – all used in a way that's almost more jazz-like than some of Denny's earlier work! The formula works great to transform a host of 50s and 60s tunes – and titles include "Volare", "Cool", "Bijou", "Harlem Nocturne", "Satin Doll", "Anniversary Song", "Like Young", "Blue Carousel", and "Theme From The Manchurian Candidate". LP, Vinyl record album

Not really "the best", but a pretty nice collection of Denny's early work for Liberty – with a groovy photo on the back that shows him working with the group in action, beating on a big conga, while the rest of the band plays exotic percussion! Titles include "The Enchanted Sea", "Ruby", "Bali Hai", "China Nights", "Moonlight & Shadows", "Ebb Tide", and "Harbor Lights". LP, Vinyl record album

The birth of a sound and the birth of a legend – Martin Denny's first album in the Exotica series, and a record so great it named an entire genre! Denny certainly didn't invent the tropical style of easy listening that came to be known as "exotica" in the 50s – but with a record like this, he delivered the goods better than anyone else – by taking away all the too-sweet styles of Hawaiian music, and serving up a stripped-down, jazzy kind of sound! The album features Denny's classic original quartet – with Arthur Lyman on vibes and Augie Colon on bongos – and titles include "Stone God", "Jungle Flower", "Busy Port", "Lotus Land", and his hit recording of "Quiet Village". LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime late 50s work from Martin Denny – his third album under the Exotica banner, and almost a deeper and weirder album than the other two! The sound here is extremely haunting – even more freed from conventional melody than the rest, and very fixated on the tonal possibilities that could be produced from Denny's unique grouping of percussion, piano, bass, and vibes. There's few tricks or gimmicks on the set – just a spare and other-worldly approach to music that's totally great! Titles include "Manila", "Mama Iti E Papa E", "Bamboo Lullaby", "Ringo Oiwake", "Moon Of Manakoora", "Congo Train", and "Beautiful Kahana". LP, Vinyl record album

Martin Denny's music always takes us away to the tropics – and this set is a whole Forbidden Island of exotica tunes! The record features the classic Denny exotica quartet with Augie Colon and Julius Wechter – plus some additional guest players on flute, percussion, and guitar – rounding out things very nicely. The expanded sound works nicely for Denny's style – and the mood incorporates plenty of easy lounge arrangements of the fairly standard instrumentation in the backdrop – broadened wonderfully in the arrangements! It's sort of a blue-eyed tropical feel – one that makes it a cheeky classic! The set includes some good originals like "Goony Birds", "Cobra", "Exotica", and "Primitiva", plus the Les Baxter tunes "Port Au Prince" and "Sim Sim", as well as a perennial exotica fave, "March Of The Siamese Children". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Martin Denny's greatest albums – thanks to some extra special added elements! For the record, Denny's classic quartet is augmented by a wealth of odd added percussion – including gongs, cymbals, tuned logs, steel drums, chimes, and "chromatic bamboo"! All of these elements take Denny's exotica sound way further than ever before – and if that's not enough, the legendary Tak Shindo plays a bit of Koto on the record too! Titles include "M'Bira", "Burma Train", "Kalua", "M'Gambo Mambo", and "Mau Mau". LP, Vinyl record album

An undisputed classic in the exotica genre – and the record that yielded Martin Denny his biggest hit! The title track "Quiet Village" was originally written by Les Baxter, but it was Martin Denny's approach that really managed to send the tune over the top – using spare percussion, rhythmic piano, and just the right amount of vibes and bird calls to give the track a really haunting feel. That approach is echoed throughout the set – with shifting instrumentation that includes celeste, bongos, marimbas, and marimbula as well! Titles include "Quiet Village", "Paradise Found", "Sake Rock", "Martinique", "Tune From Rangoon", and "Pagan Love Song". LP, Vinyl record album

A great album by Denny, with a nice approach that has sort of a drifting South Seas feel! The record is one of his last good ones for Liberty, and has lots of nice tracks like "My Isle Of Golden Dreams", "Beyond The Reef", "Flotsam & Jetsam", and "Cross Current". LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing little set that's as compelling as the title and cover might imply – and easily one of our favorite Martin Denny albums ever! There's a sound here that is, actually, quite "hypnotique" – as Denny's core combo is expanded by some larger arrangements, Japanese instrumentation, and even some cool vocals by the Jack Halloran singers – all of which serve to create these pulsating musical lines that shift and sway with an extremely dreamy quality, one that can easily hypnotize us with its musical magic! The added sound really adds a lot to Denny's core group – and the record has some great tracks like "Jungle Madness", "American In Bali", "Chinese Lullaby", "Hypnotique", "Scimitar", and "Voodoo Dreams". LP, Vinyl record album

Weird and wonderful work from the great Martin Denny – and a record that adds in some great extra elements to his core exotica groove! The depth of the album is apparent on the very first tune – "Tsetse Fly", which features a buzzing variation on the sound of the insect in the title – then shows up even more strongly through the heavier rhythms and added vocals that appear on many of the album's other tracks. There's a style here that's almost Afro-Cuban at times – but which still glides across nicely with that heavenly Denny approach to melody and rhythm! Titles include "Tsetse Fly", "Ma'Chumba", "Simba", "Raftero", "Swamp Fire", and "Cubano Chant". LP, Vinyl record album

It might be argued that Martin Denny's percussion was always exotic, but this album adds a bit more to the mix, by adding a whole bunch of strange Eastern instruments, all outlined in the notes on the back. The group includes Augie Colon, Julius Wechter, Harvey Ragsdale, and Frank Kim – all of whom play percussion on various tracks. Includes "My Tane", "Cumana", "Day Delight", "Monlight On The Ganges", and "Song Of The Bayou". LP, Vinyl record album

The second album in Denny's legendary Exotica trilogy – a set of records that provided the extreme definition of the small sub-genre that today has become the stuff of legend! Denny's still working here in his classic format – a small group with heavy piano lines, playful percussion, and some birdcalls sung by the members of the group! The set's a mix of strange songs from strange sources, all given the sublime Denny twist – and titles include "Singing Bamboos", "Escales", "August Bells", "Ebb Tide", "Rush Hour In Hong Kong", and "Soshu Night Serenade". LP, Vinyl record album

A great later moment from Martin Denny – a set that gave him a big 60s hit in a sweet version of "Taste of Honey"! Denny approaches the tune with all the great mellow moods that Bobby Scott intended – none of the too-fast styles of Hirt, and instead the slow-moving rhythms that work perfectly for the blue undercurrents on the piano. Other tunes follow in a similarly nice blend – still a bit exotic, but almost showing more of a vibes/piano/percussion mix that seems to be borrowed from George Shearing or Cal Tjader – one that we approve of highly! Titles include "Route 66", "Exodus", "I'm In A Dancing Mood", "Black Orchid", "Take Five", and "Taste Of Honey". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest-sounding Martin Denny albums of the 60s – a record that blends his earlier exotica sound with elements of Indian music, and maybe some great bossa nova currents too! For the set, Denny takes a tip from the sound of the East – adding some slight Indian flavors to his usual groove with the help of arranger George Tipton – who you might know from his work with Nilsson, or some of his own great instrumental records! Most of the music is still in the lush piano instrumental mode that Denny was using in these later Liberty years – but things are definitely groovy throughout, even if the Indian elements are sometimes used in ways that are more bossa than anything else. Maybe not the clearest picture you'll get of the sound of India in the 60s – but a sweet little record, with titles that include "Incense & Peppermints", "Live For Life", "Touch Of India", "Hypnotique", and "Indrani". LP, Vinyl record album

This is a live recording from Duke Kahanamoku's in Honolulu. Songs include "Rain", "Hilo March", "Hawaiian Wedding Song", "Volga Boatmen", "Black Orchid", "Pretty Maui Girl", "Cock-Eyed Mayor Of Kaunakakai", "Lei Aloha Lei Makamae", "On The Beach At Waikiki", and "Ol' Man River". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderful stuff – way more than just an easy instrumental album, and a great batch of exotic tunes with lots of jazzy touches! There's enough of the Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman influence here – but Rex and group take the sound a lot further, by playing like a true small combo, and swinging the tunes with a heck of a lot more jazz than you'd expect. Grooves are nice, and get quite Latiny at times – and the feel of the record almost reminds us of some of Bobby Montez work for Pacific Jazz in the late 50s. Titles include "Ginza Girl", "Sushi", "Patricia", "Wild Orchids", "Bird Train", "Bushi Bushi", and "Will He Like Me". LP, Vinyl record album

Although Martin Denny had the big hit with "Quiet Village", the tune was written by Les Baxter – a fact that's stated clearly on the cover of this one, which says "Les Baxter's Original Quiet Village"! The album's a nice collection of some of Baxter's best exotica work for Capitol – including a few titles from some of the more hard to find albums in his catalog. Titles include "Sea Nymph", "Busy Port", "Temple Of Gold", "Tahiti: A Summer Night At Sea", "Gardens Of The Moon", "Simba", "Singing Sea Shells", and of course, "Quiet Village". LP, Vinyl record album

Classic exotica from Arthur Lyman – a set that really shows the lessons he learned from Martin Denny – and his willingness to take the genre into some strong new directions! The style here is still very much in the percussive mode you might expect from Denny's generation – but it's also a bit more mystical and exotic too – somewhat swirling and dark at points, with lots of weird sounds in the mix. There's an odd instrument called a "moon harp" on part of the record – and a bit of vocals from the lovely Ethel Azama too – and titles include the beautiful "Moon Over a Ruined Castle", plus "Bwana A", "South Pacific Moonlight", "La Paloma", "Pua Carnation", and a great take on "Colonel Bogey's March", aka the theme to "Bridge Over The River Kwai". LP, Vinyl record album

A pretty nice album of exotica material – much better than most of the other Hawaiian LPs floating around at the time, and very much in the spirit of the best work by Martin Denny or Arthur Lyman. The instrumentation here is a mix of piano, vibes, and percussion – and the recording style has the instruments drifting very quietly about, sliding into one another with less of a dramatic feel than on other exotic albums – which really works well in creating a backdrop of sound. Titles include "The Naked Sea", "Ebb Tide", "Danse Arabe", "Hana Maui", "Ringo Oiwake", and "Africa". LP, Vinyl record album