StereoExotique

Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist Jim Bacchi started The Tikiyaki Orchestra as a one-man project (the name came from an old eBay handle plus “Orchestra”). Future Primitive Records issued the debut StereoExotique in 2007 — mostly Bacchi overdubbing guitars, keys, vibes, and percussion, with help on steel guitar.

The charts borrow Denny, Baxter, and Dale vocabulary — tribal percussion, organ, echo vibes, Hawaiian-tinged guitar — recorded with modern studio tools instead of a 1958 aluminum dome. Later albums expanded into a live septet that plays original exotica for the contemporary tiki-bar circuit.

Vintage vinyl is charming until surface noise fights the speakers. StereoExotique keeps the mid-century arrangement language clean enough for a current system, which is why home bars and revival rooms reach for it when the Denny pressing is tired.