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Wednesday, July 25, 2007I Remember Hong Kong Time for a trip East, with something a little different than the usual Asia-influenced exotica. Different primarily because this one is actually comprised of music from Hong Kong. I don't know if you'd call these the greatest hits of the year, but it's still a nice sample of some of the tradition-meets-pop music that was popular from the 30s-60s. If you remember the music used in Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, then you have an idea of what the music is like. Side B of the LP was culled from a popular Huangmei Opera. Good stuff.From the album's back cover: "Fiesta Records presents another outstanding album of international music recorded in its native country. In this album "I Remember Hong Kong" we bring you a collection of popular songs from the various provinces of China. Also contained in this long playing record are excerpts from the screen opera entitled "Red Lantern," which type of production is very popular in the China of today. All the selections contained in this album of far eastern music have a strong oriental flavor. These songs, like their people, have a rich feeling and the interpretation of the lyrics projects many wise and significant adages. We know that, after listening to this album, you will have a true feeling of the music of Hong Kong. "This album was arranged and conducted by Lee Ho Shiang, who is one of the leading composers in Hong Kong. He migrated from China in 1948 and has since composed the screen background music for over eighty motion pictures and has written over two hundred screen songs. Lee Ho Shiang is known in Hong Kong as the "Composer of Composers." Track List [Side A] Bearer Juno Bird Spring Does Not Belong to Us Lotus Seed Voice of the Ghost House Foggy Night Lament [Side B] Red Lantern Opera Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UMS7RIVQ Labels: Exotic Asia, Exotica, mp3s posted by Keith at 8:54 AM | 0 Comments | Tuesday, July 24, 2007Martin Denny: Hawaii Goes A-Go-Go For the inaugural file upload, I figured Martin Denny going cuckoo was the best place to start. Denny was one of the originators of the exotica sound, that bizarre blend of jazz, pop, and white, middle-class America's interpretation of mysterious far-flung locales like Polynesia, Asia, and Araby.In the early 1960s, Elvis Presley returned home from the Army and resumed his acting career. But the serious films he'd been making before he left were a thing of the past, and upon his return, The King entered into a long career of breezy romantic comedy musicals that got increasingly shoddy as the years wore on but, for a man like me, never really got unenjoyable. His big hit was Blue Hawaii, a film that found the one-time king of rock and roll crooning a number of exotica-flavored songs that, years earlier, would have been the music of someone's parents. Square stuff. But Elvis made exotica palatable to the rock and roll generation. A few years later, exotica king Martin Denny must have seen fit to pay the King back, and the result is Hawaii Goes A Go-Go, an exotica album with a go-go rock undercurrent. And while I can't get images of square-jawed insurance salesmen in cardigans or Hawaiian shirts clapping out of time and moving stiffly to the wild grooves, that doesn't mean this isn't a boss selection of Denny tunes that will encourage you to hop up, shake your thang, and possibly clap along (though the spontaneous clapping on the recording sounds rather premeditated). This is my first real rip from vinyl, so forgive if the sound quality is suspect. I think it sounds good, but I'm not a freak about such things. Track Listing [Side 1] E Lei Ka Lei Lei Beyond the Reef The Girl from Ipanema Hole in the Wall Luna Luna Call Me [Side 2] Friendly Islands Sweet Someone Everything in the Garden She Sang Aloha to Me Pearls (Mexican Pearls) Pearly Shells Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BYLGE2TA Labels: Artist: Martin Denny, Exotica, mp3s posted by Keith at 2:58 PM | 1 Comments | |
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