1960 HiFi / Stereo Review 5-page article on Exotica (scanned) - Tiki Music

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Tue, Jan 26, 2010 2:09 PM On 2010-01-26 09:03, Mr. Ho wrote: ...it really makes me wonder if there was a race to just churn out stuff and press records with interesting juxtapositions and combos. I know that there definitely was, one of the best examples is "The Surfmen" and their "Exotic Island" album, which was purely put together to capitalize on the Exotica trend. I know because I knew the man behind it: David L. Miller, founder of the 101 Strings series, but also of the EUROPA budget label in Germany, for which my dad became the General Manager: Dave Miller and Harald Kirsten in Hamburg, Germany, 1966 To make clear that he was only interested in making money, Miller's famous credo was "We are not in the record business, we are in the plastics business!" He had figured out that classically trained orchestras would work for peanuts in Germany after the war, and so he recorded his 101 Strings albums with the Hamburg Radio Orchestra, at the Hamburg Music Hall, that's the place the well known photo from the front and back of many of the 101 Strings albums depicts: See the box on the left above the stage? They had their mixing board in there, and I remember sitting up there in my early teens when visiting my dad at work, recording one of the label's 2nd rate cover bands, put together from studio musicians. That's why I put a track from "Exotic Island" on my "Sound of Tiki" CD. And also to leave no doubt about the fact that the Exotica trend was mainly a COMMERCIAL endeavor --which was before "going commercial" became a bad thing. :) The irony is that not only is that album now appreciated by Exotica fans as one of the finer examples of the genre, but even our music critic John Ball lauded it in the article that started this whole thread. Even funnier is that, while he is convinced that "the bird calls are the real thing, and so are the jungle noises" I myself felt I had this to say in my liner notes: "This track ("Bamboo") was chosen for this compilation for two reasons: Because of its funny phony bird calls--which sound more like retching after having had one too many Zombie cocktails (Dave Miller was known to down 14 martinis and to still be able to work)--and also because this author’s father was hired by Miller in the 1960s..." Boy, I get to roll down my whole life here on this thread! First "Duel on the Beach" and now early childhood recording session experiences (NOT with The Surfmen, unfortunately, who recorded in Hollywood, not Hamburg)

On 2010-01-26 09:03, Mr. Ho wrote:
...it really makes me wonder if there was a race to just churn out stuff and press records with interesting juxtapositions and combos.

I know that there definitely was, one of the best examples is "The Surfmen" and their "Exotic Island" album, which was purely put together to capitalize on the Exotica trend. I know because I knew the man behind it: David L. Miller, founder of the 101 Strings series, but also of the EUROPA budget label in Germany, for which my dad became the General Manager:

Dave Miller and Harald Kirsten in Hamburg, Germany, 1966

To make clear that he was only interested in making money, Miller's famous credo was "We are not in the record business, we are in the plastics business!" He had figured out that classically trained orchestras would work for peanuts in Germany after the war, and so he recorded his 101 Strings albums with the Hamburg Radio Orchestra, at the Hamburg Music Hall, that's the place the well known photo from the front and back of many of the 101 Strings albums depicts:

See the box on the left above the stage? They had their mixing board in there, and I remember sitting up there in my early teens when visiting my dad at work, recording one of the label's 2nd rate cover bands, put together from studio musicians.

That's why I put a track from "Exotic Island" on my "Sound of Tiki" CD. And also to leave no doubt about the fact that the Exotica trend was mainly a COMMERCIAL endeavor --which was before "going commercial" became a bad thing. :)

The irony is that not only is that album now appreciated by Exotica fans as one of the finer examples of the genre, but even our music critic John Ball lauded it in the article that started this whole thread. Even funnier is that, while he is convinced that "the bird calls are the real thing, and so are the jungle noises" I myself felt I had this to say in my liner notes:

"This track ("Bamboo") was chosen for this compilation for two reasons: Because of its funny phony bird calls--which sound more like retching after having had one too many Zombie cocktails (Dave Miller was known to down 14 martinis and to still be able to work)--and also because this author’s father was hired by Miller in the 1960s..."

Boy, I get to roll down my whole life here on this thread! First "Duel on the Beach" and now early childhood recording session experiences (NOT with The Surfmen, unfortunately, who recorded in Hollywood, not Hamburg)

Post #507136 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Jan 26, 2010 2:09 PM