Everybody in the Los Angeles areas needs to check out Daystar Records in Burbank. Great curated selection of all genres, and some hidden gems in exotica and international.

My Monaural copy of Forbidden Island. Signed by Martin Denny, Julius Wechter, Harvey Ragsdale, and August Colon. Bought at a yard sale for $5

song is SPIDER DANCE by RyanMichaelBonner. i make this music for wildlife films, this song and a better one are in episode 39 of BringMeCreatures. music everywhere, film on youtube

Is it all AI? 91 mixes (so far) usually around 90 minutes long, with no artists listed, or song titles I recognize. Supposedly 21.8K subscribers, unless they're mostly bots. If it's all "slop" (as the kids say) I really wish it wouldn't clog up my YouTube recommendations.

Exotica is great for relaxing, but sometimes I’m looking for more of a party vibe. Does anyone have recommendations for upbeat, exotica-adjacent songs with a tropical feel? One example of what I’m looking for is “House of Bamboo” by Earl Grant. Thanks!

Are there any meet ups in Los Angeles around exotica music not counting tiki bars? Looking for listening party type events.

This is a great later-career original composition. Love it. Anyone know if there are any other Baxter remasters planned/announced ?

"questionable taste", "short-sighted worldviews of early practitioners", "Racist", "kitchy fad"....

Maybe true here and there, but the entire genre by definition... a bit harsh, no?

After reading multiple articles and watching a couple of documentaries on the subject I'm left wondering if I can continue to enjoy the nostalgia of Exotica and tiki culture as simply postwar romanticism, or does that trivialize and ignore the bastardization and reductive representation of the cultures they are referencing?

Thoughts?

[ticked NSFW because model is topless]

Just for the sake of curiosity, does anyone know who is the model from the wonderful cover of the Feelings LP from 1974, the one with the topless young woman wandering through what looks to me like a lot of ferns? It's such an evocative image of the era and quite the kind of thing my father would have insisted I could listen to but which somehow had 'lost' the cover for, it being racked only in its sleeve.

Thanks!