Exotica was a rather complicated and eclectic movement in the history of American music. Peaking in popularity in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the genre was a marriage between Western easy-listening and different strains of world music picked up by American audiences following World War II, especially from the Pacific islands and Hawaii.
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While the original works of exotica come across to most modern listeners as anachronistic and appropriative, the unique synthesis of the genre presents a mostly forgotten musical heritage that is ripe to develop new ideas from.
And develop new ideas is exactly what Nashville-based band Hula Hi-Fi is doing on their upcoming debut record, The Isle of Forgotten Dreams. Consisting of vocalist Danica Dora and multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaler, Hula Hi-Fi describes the sound of their record as ‘Hawaiian noir,’ and have just released its first single, “Crooked Hearts.”
“If your misery loves company, ‘Crooked Hearts’ delivers that in a fun way. It’s an anthem for the longing,” Kaler told American Songwriter. “The album needed more drama. I started thinking about how cool it would be to write a song with an orchestra being the primary musical anchor behind Danica’s voice. The song was produced and recorded at East Side Manor Studios in Nashville and was officially completed in Brno, Czech Republic where the orchestral arrangements were performed by The Brno Philharmonic Orchestra.”
The sultry nature of “Crooked Hearts” paired with its delightfully cinematic music video creates an atmosphere that just screams ‘James Bond in Hawaii.’ The track features an irresistibly funky lap steel guitar part, a dreamy vocal performance from Dora and the Czech strings which act as the icing on top. It’s fun, it’s alluring, it’s seductive, it’s sentimental — it’s neo-exotica!
Check out Hula Hi-Fi’s new single “Crooked Hearts” below:
