This page is dedicated to selected "Incredibly Strange Music", focussing on more or less obscure material that is far too good for oblivion! The following artists and their recordings may be new to you, both by name and by sound. The music they make is almost never heard on radio, or rarely featured in typical music magazines. They all work waaaaaaaaaay off the beaten track, light years away from that omni-present middle of the road. This page is meant as an hommage to them, AND as an learning instrument for people looking for some really unheard music.
hang on, and prepare yourself for some
STRANGE AUDIO EXPERIENCES!
Teen Dance Music From China And Malaysia:
exotic go-go and psychploitation music from Asia!
Listen! (QuickTime)
Public Domain -- used with kind permission of Thrift Score Records
Hans Reichel:
On "Shanghaied On Tor Road", Hans reichel plays his own creation: the daxophone; read about it (and marvel at the pictures) in the book that comes with the compilation CD "Gravikords Whirlies & Pyrophones", or at
Hans Reichel's home page. This experimental wooden instrument produces an incredible amount of hilarious, different sounds. Sometimes it sounds like a musical instrument (kazoo, trumpet, flute, bassoon, cello, xylophone, horn, rasp...), but most of the times it resembles animal noises (sheep, elephant, camel, duck, lion, donkey, dog, cat). Several daxophones playing together in a clownesque way create the ilusion of an circus-like orchestra on a planet at the other side of the galaxy. Highly recommended! A very rare chance to hear experimental music that is actually pleasant to hear.
Reference: "Shanghaied On Tor Road. The World's 1st Operetta Performed On The Daxophone"
FMP CD 46, Germany, 1992, rated +++++
Listen! (QuickTime)
audio sample used with kind permission of Hans Reichel
Beat Psichedelico Alla Celluloide:
A wonderful CD compiled by Sergio Alessandro Ferrario, with a sound from Italy not yet featured much on other comps. This is not funky or jazzy music, but - as the title sugests - BEAT, the late 60's, instrumental kind. Not really very Psichedelico I think, but very bright and fun, with great catchy, mostly uptempo pop melodies that sound like they were all used as TV theme tunes. Everything played by small bands, with very little use of electric guitar as front instrument, but plenty of electric organs. The sound constantly reminded me of Vic Mizzy's "Addams Family" soundtrack, because there's lot's of harpsichord here. Neil Hefti's 2 Batman LP's also came to mind, but without the jazz element. A bit of spaghetti influence on 1 track, another sounded a bit like Duke Of Burlington on his "The Pressed Piano" LP. Just like in the "Schulmädchen Report" CD, there's also a lot of plagiarism here, which seems to be an essential part of late 60's-early 70's "loungecore". One of the best Italian comp's I've heard so far, highly recommended!
Read what Giovanni Berti wrote about it in the Exotica Mailing List:
Featuring the groovy cinematic sounds from Italy you all know via reissues from Irma, Right Tempo, Plastic, etc. From the Sciascia archives, "Beat Psichedelico Alla Celluloide" & "Mosaico Psichedelico" are the sounds of dramatic, love and suspence themes, introductions, bridges, finales and background music for radio and television, films, industrial videos, advertising and amateur filmakers. All songs date 1966-67-68-69. For more P. Roelens you can check "Mo'plen 1000" (Irma) and "Phase 6 Super Stereo" (Plastic). More Sciascia and Hamilton on "Phase 6 Super Stereo", and more Anselmo on "Easy Tempo, vol. 2". More Lesiman on "Easy Tempo", volumes 2 and 5. More also on the recent "Spectrum" comp. on Plastic.Listen! (RealAudio)
Reference: Giallo Records Saf 028, Italy, 1998. This is volume 2 in the Celluloide series -- volume 1 is called "Mosaico Psichedelico", Giallo Records Saf 021.
audio samples used with kind permission of Sergio Alessandro Ferrario of Giallo Records
Mosaico Psichedelico:
I liked this one also very much, but not as much as the "Beat Psichedelico Alla Celluloide" volume, although I also know that many people will actually prefer the "Mosaico", which is more psychploitation, louder, wilder, more eccentric, more of a "cinematrographic" (crime/spy jazzy) sound, and with more electric guitars, and lots of organ too, and with 5 tracks that are really scary and probably taken from a horror movie soundtrack. The songs date from 1969 to 1974.
Listen!
Both CDs are available through Giovanni Berti in Italy (e-mail: paludi@interim.it).
audio samples used with kind permission of Sergio Alessandro Ferrario of Giallo Records
The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band:
If you've ever heard "the Dr. Demento Show", then you've heard The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band too, as they made several jingles for that show. If you like Spike Jones, the Portsmouth Sinfonia, the Bonzo Dog Band, the Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band... then their "Retro Rooter" CD is more than worth checking out. Visit the RRGTCB web site, but first
Listen! (RealAudio)
audio sample used with kind permission of DbMabuse
Attileo Mineo:
Attileo Mineo's "Man In Space With Sounds" is the ultra-rare record that contained the electronic outer space exotica music played in the Bubbleator at the Seattle State World's Fair of 1962. It has now been rereleased on CD by the Swedish record label Subliminal Sounds in collaboration with Jack Diamond Music. (Check out their sites for mor detailed info.) It is truly amazing, brilliant, Incredibly Strange Music, featuring lots of weird electronic zounds and a symphonic orchestra! (rated +++++) -
Listen! (RealAudio)
audio sample used with kind permission of Subliminal Sounds
Don Tiki:
Warm, excellently played, classic exotica anno 1997, that will bring Hawaiian heaven into your den, taken from their debut CD "The forbidden sounds of Don Tiki" on Taboo Records (rated +++++) -
Listen! (RealAudio)
audio sample used with kind permission of Don Tiki
more RealAudio tracks from this CD at Radio Vik
Palm Springs Yacht Club:
Rude yet virtuoso, hilarious hand music (fake farting sounds), taken from their cassette tape "Breezy Swing" (rated +++++). Maybe childish, but then, isn't most novelty? Only 7 out of the 15 tracks on this tape are hand music. Unfortunately, their plans to release a CD full of this hand music were cancelled because lack of success. So, BUY this tape! (note: I'm not affiliated to them, just a big fan) - email contact: westy@ocweb.com.
Listen! (RealAudio)
audio samples used with kind permission of Palm Springs Yacht Club
The London Punkharmonic Orchestra:
Punk classics played by a classical ensemble, who show you how beautifull the melodies of those tunes really are! The sounds you hear are smooth, luscious, haunting, evocative, funny, incredibly strange, and still faithful to the originals.
Taken from their CD "Classical Punk!" on Music Club (UK, rated +++++).
Listen! (RealAudio)
Patrick Husson:
This French gardener is one of the only men in the world to posess a real soprano voice! It's really astonishing: very clear and pure, and so beautifully angel-like! It's so close to a castrato's voice that one wonders... well, anyway, this is 1 track taken from his debut CD "Le jardinier" (the gardener) on Sony/Columbia France (rated +++++). -
Listen! (RealAudio)
Peter Thomas belongs to the best film music composers, up there with John Barry and Ennio Morricone. The British music press calls him the German John Barry, because of his outspoken talent for writing big, action-packed spy music. He has many many more talents though, like unbridled versatility, and an unconventional, truly wild musical mastermind. Some of his so-called easy listening, as featured on the "Easy loungin'" and "FutureMuzik" CD's for exemple, is so dangerous it's light years away from easy!
Listen to these (RealAudio) audio fragments, and you'll also discover his talent for witty musical humour in "Pardon Me Mrs. Carmen", and his use of unearthly special effects as in "Outside Atmosphere"
Listen! (RealAudio)
A
"Raumpatrouille" (Polyphon/Polygram 838 227, Germany, 1990, rated +++++)
read full review
A
"Raumpatrouille" (Bungalow BUNG 009, 1998, with 3 bonus tracks, rated +++++)
B
"Filmmusik. Original Musik aus den Edgar Wallace und Jerry Cotton Filmen"
(Polydor, 517 096, Germany, 199?, deleted, rated ++++)
C
"100% Cotton. The complete Jerry Cotton Edition"
(Crippled Dick Hot Wax 04366, Germany, 1998, rated +++++)
D
"Easy loungin'. Twenty easy listening classics" (Polydor 529 491-2, Germany, 1995, rated +++++)
E
"FutureMusik" (Scamp Records 9724, USA, rated +++++)
read full review
All audio fragments on this site are (as far as I know) used under the FAIR USE act of copyright law:
I've tried to contact artists and record labels to clear these audio fragments, but didn't always succeed. Therefore, if you're a copyright owner of any of these audio fragments, and you feel their use on this page as an infringement, please contact me.
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Next to the song title, you should see a controller, that looks something like this:
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