The Fruit of Dreams / The Passions
Les Baxter
El/Cherry Red / Oriental Pacific
"Baxter offered package tours in sound, selling tickets to sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboo emotions before lunch, view a pagan ceremony, go wild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home hi-fi comforts in the white suburbs."
— David Toop, author of Exotica
With all due respect to Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter is the greatest exotica composer, and evidence of that claim can be heard on these two CDs — one a new reissue of his albums Ports of Pleasure and The Sacred Idol and the other a limited edition reissue of his collaboration with vocalist Bas Sheva, The Passions. All three albums were originally released by Capitol Records during the late '50s (SI was released in '60).
Baxter orchestral fantasies evoke a time when places like Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific islands were truly far off wonderlands of sensual delights. The sense that one might discover a hitherto unknown tribe or way of life — even Shangra-La — is palpable on an album like Ports of Pleasure. Track titles like "Tramp Steamer to Singapore" and "Monkey Dance of Bali" help to conjure technicolor widescreen imagery.
It's even easier to imagine in regard to The Sacred Idol as it is the LP version of Baxter's soundtrack for a little seen film of the same name. This time, Baxter conjures the distant past as well as the exotic places on tracks like "The Feathered Serpent" and "The High Priest of the Aztecs." Other notable tracks include "Pool of Love" and "Fruit of Dreams" (the latter track providing the title for the combo platter.
The Passions doesn't exactly fit the exotica bill, but is a perfect example of the related "incredibly strange music" genre. Here Baxter provides cinematic moods for Bas Sheva to emote in a mostly non-verbal manner. The album opens with two tracks of "Despair," followed by "Ecstasy," "Hate" and "Lust," and eventually "Terror," "Jealousy," "Joy" and "Passion." The latter track was recorded with Sabu and His Percussion Ensemble instead of Baxter, and the final track, "Portrait of Leda" dumps both Baxter and Sheva for Phil Moore and Leda Annest. Only the final track seems truly tacked on, though it attempts to fit in.
It's worth mentioning that Baxter spent much of the '60s recording soundtracks for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films, the American releases of Mario Bava's gothic horror (Black Sunday), and numerous other releases from American International Pictures, including the biker flick Hell's Belles.
Those who haven't really experienced Les Baxter's exotica period should pick up a copy of the 2CD Ultra Lounge compilation, The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter.
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