Tipsy - Uh-Oh! (2000)

Second album by the great, inscrutable Tipsy. For those unfamiliar, Tipsy pairs electronic/IDM with mountains of samples from old easy listening, exotica, and lounge records. While Esquivel-fueled 'electronica' was fairly popular around the turn of the millennium, Tipsy's dense, manic, unrelentingly imaginative take on the microgenre was unparalleled. Their first record's the classic, if they have one, but Uh-Oh! is equally worthy imo.

Track listing:

1. Hard Petting

2. Papaya Freeway

3. Hey!

4. Sweet Cinnamon Punch

5. Neon Tetra

6. Wig Out

7. Reverse Cowgirl

8. Swallowtail

9. Moisture Seekers

10. Kitty Takes a Ride

11. Fur Teacup

12. Pink Mood

13. Bunny Kick

14. Suez Motel

15. XXXmas

16. Seaweed

17. Zombie's Mood

18. Eclipse of the Sun Virgin

Firecracker

You may also like:

Martin Denny - Forbidden Island (1958)

Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (1999)

Carlo Maria Cordio - Shadows and Memories (1979)

Lovely, laid-back instrumental disco/lite-funk. Cinematic orchestral melodies, space-age synths, gentle drumming, sparse piano lines, wordless choirs. Been looking for this for the past two years, and finally tracked it down last night. That's two white whales in one week, baby! Also: don't forget to breathe, we're gonna get through this, I swear.

Track listing:

1. Moon Sacrifice

2. Flying in the Sunshine

3. Seagulls Flight

4. Theme for a Dream

5. After the Dark

6. Peaceful Moment

7. Velvet Harmonies

8. Soul Vibrations

9. Wind of Summer Night

10. Shadows and Memories

Sleepwalker

You should also hear:

Shakatak - Night Birds (1982)

Seaside Lovers - Memories in Beach House (1983)

Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (Colonna Sonora Originale) (1968)

A pretty great soundtrack for a giallo film that I've never seen and doesn't seem to get the best reviews, which tend to center on the idea that the plot makes no sense, despite that being pretty much a given for Italian horror. Eerie, smoldering, late-night jazz with some hints of exotica and other weirdly perky diversions.

Track listing:

1. Marcel-Deborah

2. Night Story

3. Intimità

4. Ossessione

5. Il Valico

6. Molto Tempo Fa

7. Musica Bionda

8. I Robot

9. L'Imprevisto

10. Ginevra

11. La bandita

12. Croisette

Shallow breathing

Also consider listening to:

Bruno Nicolai - Tutti i Colori del Buio (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1972)

James Clarke - Mystery Movie (1974)

Astrud Gilberto - I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do (1969)

Beautiful bossa nova/vocal jazz from Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto. The perfect balance of melancholy, string-swept ballads and breezy, uptempo numbers. File the title track alongside "I Get Along Without You Very Well", "Most of the Time", and "She Thinks I Still Care" -- breakup songs in which the narrator goes to great lengths to explain how little they care about their former lover, thereby revealing the true depths of their heartbreak. Bought this LP today for (drumroll please) 10 cents. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, you've been great.

Track listing:
1. I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do
2. Didn't We
3. Wailing of the Willow
4. Where's the Love?
5. The Sea Is My Soul (I Remember When)
6. Trains and Boats and Planes
7. World Stop Turning
8. Without Him
9. Wee Small Hours
10. If (The Biggest Little Word)

He's got a problem if he thinks I need him
I couldn't care less now that we're through
I only sit home and I wait for his phone call
When I haven't got anything better to do

Also check out:

Brigitte Fontaine -
Brigitte Fontaine Est... Folle (1969)

Joan Manuel Serrat -
Mediterráneo (1971)

Dominic Frontier and His Orchestra - Pagan Festival: An Exotic Love Ritual for Orchestra (1959)

Some good ol' fashioned exotica from Dominic Frontier, who I believe is best known, if at all, for his film scores. Lush, inviting, cinematic, and probably problematic by today's standards. Claims to be an "interpretation of ancient Inca rituals, superstitions, and the romance and mysteries of their colorful civilization," but I'm guessing that it's the end result of about 25 minutes of research.

Track listing:
1. Festival
2. House of Dawn (Paccar-Tampu)
3. Temple of Suicide (Ixtab)
4. Moon Goddess (Ixchel)
5. Time of Sunshine (Yaxkin)
6. Goddess of Love (X-Tabai)
7. House of Pleasure (Tampu-Anca)
8. The Harvest (Zax)
9. Corn Festival (Zabacil Than)
10. God of Seasons (Kuklkan)
11. Jaguar God (Balam)
12. Venus Girl (Ix-Koben)

Whence no traveler returns

Martin Denny -
Forbidden Island (1958)

The David Whitaker Orchestra -
Music to Spy By (1966)

Seaside Lovers - Memories in Beach House (1983)

Related:
Akira Inoue - Splash (1983)

Sunny, laid-back, synth-saturated fusion bliss. If there's such a thing as a smooth jazz masterpiece, this is definitely it. It's been a somewhat shitty coupla days 'round here, so I'm coping by sitting around with a fluffy-ass cat in my lap, getting high and pretending that I'm at the beach.

Track listing:
1. Lovers Paradise
2. Melting Blue
3. Sun Bathing
4. Sunset Afternoon
5. X's and O's
6. Wind, Wave & Wineglass
7. Coconuts Island
8. Evening Shadow
9. Blue Memories

Funland

More of these vibes:

Tatsuro Yamashita -
Spacy (1977)

Shakatak -
Night Birds (1982)

The David Whitaker Orchestra - Music to Spy By (1966)

Cinematic, spy-themed big band jazz, augmented by the occasional super-fuzzy guitar and excursion into exotica.

Track listing:
1. Interception
2. Pistol Packing Paris
3. Two Shades of Black
4. Mr. Mouthpiece
5. Strange Affair
6. Kremlin-Koke-Kaviar
7. This'll Kill You
8. Federation of Finks
9. Cressida
10. Reflection in Fact
11. Boneyard
12. Alive at Last

Circling sharks

You might also enjoy:

Gary Burton -
The Time Machine (1966)

David Axelrod - Song of Innocence
(1968) + Songs of Experience (1969)

Martin Denny - Forbidden Island (1958)

This is what working at a record store does to you. Try as you might, you end up saying things like, "Martin Denny is way better than he'll ever be given credit for," and mean it. I'm definitely a sucker for vibraphone, marimba, and the like, and those are all over this record, but it's more than that. I mean, who could resist such laid-back, oddly mysterious sounds? Not this guy.

Track listing:
1. Cobra
2. Port-Au-Prince
3. Exotica
4. Little China Doll
5. Bali Ha'i
6. Narcissus Queen
7. Goony Birds
8. Sim Sim
9. Primitiva
10. March of the Siamese Children
11. Sukara
12. Forbidden Island

Paradise found