Music When it comes to record collecting there is nothing better than a great find in a charity store. Getting that record home, checking out the cover and then putting the needle on the record and hearing that sweet sound for the first time. Sometimes that sound will be a little scratchy and a little hissy which can be a little disappointing. Most of us these days have some software to fix audio from records, and for the most past it does a great job. However, I thoroughly recommend a magical product from an Australian inventor called Record Revirginizer.Cary Stoddard is the inventor and I spoke to this amazing man on my radio show, The Cocktail ( continue reading... )

The Cocktail Nation - Queens Of Vintage

Episode 266    May 12th 2013

This week we talk to the publisher of an online magazine called Queens Of Vintage, her name is Lena Weber and recently she interviewed me in her kings of vintage portion of the website so I thought we should have her on to talk vintage culture and the English scene. Plus the best exotica and lounge music from across the globe.

Music At some unspecified moment of the 1950′s the burgeoning technology of high-fidelity sound and sex became synonymous. Instead of grand-dad’s ukelele or uncle Frank’s player piano, vacuum tubes and transformers took over the machinations of audio seduction. Clearly it was the breakthrough technology of throbbing bass and ecstatic treble that opened the path to perdition. The breathless merging of woofer and tweeter. But there were other subtleties of universal tympanic mood and mischief in the air! The ‘Long-Play’ record album or ‘LP’ gave a full 30 to 45 mood-making minutes. Combined with the automatic record changer, a technological wonder with ( continue reading... )


Music Tired of spinning the same old Esquivel and Les Baxter on the hi-fi? First, make sure you’ve given a listen to the fabulous Ultra Swank compilations curated by our own Chris. Then feast your ears on Luxuriamusic.com. And what a feast it is! Luxuria is an audible smorgasbord of tiki, exotica, and lounge music of our favourite era. Since its humble beginnings in 2000, Luxuria ( read more... )

Music Exotica music began to take its roots as early as the 1930′s, but after WWII this romanticized version of Polynesia, far-away places, and tropical islands was clearly permeating its way into the American culture, transporting the listener with distinctive sounds like jungle drums, idiophones, Indonesian and Burmese gongs, Tahitian logs and the exotic sounds of bird calls, primal screeching, and other abstract jungle sounds. Martin ( read more... )

Music Ever wonder what an Italian film score sounds like? Yeah? Well how about Italian scores from erotic films? Even if you haven’t seen an Italian erotica, these scores are great for every lounge music lover (pun intended). “Beat At Cinecitta” is a music score compilation from, you guessed it, raunchy and erotic Italian films from the 60′s and 70′s. Italian composers such as Piero Piccioni ( read more... )

Music Dave Pike has created this swell recording for all those swingin’ bachelors. Herbie Hancock plays the keyboard along side Dave Pike’s vibraphone. Bobby Hebb had wrote “Sunny” and introduced it in this album, which was later released for hundreds of additional recordings. This album reminds me a little of Cal Tjader, who was the creator of Acid Jazz. Some of my favorite recordings are “Blind ( read more... )