Like hot lava erupting from a long extinct volcano, Don Tiki has revived exotica music from the depths of the discount record bin. The brainchild of lounge aficionados Perry Coma and Fluid Floyd (a.k.a. Kit Ebersbach and Lloyd Kandell), this collective of regular and guest musicians play the same mixture of music that originally put Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Arthur Lyman on the map in the 1950s and '60s. For those not familiar with Hawaii's most sought after tiki-lounge band, Don Tiki's two current CDs are a pupu platter of African, South American, and Polynesian instruments, rhythms, melodies, and bird calls. On their debut disc, The Forbidden Sounds of Don Tiki, their instrumentals range from the serene Maidenhair Fern to the boiling Hot Like Lava. When the band adds vocals, they drift off into good-natured kitsch in the haunting Bamboozled and catchy old tropical fantasy tunes, like An Occasional Man, both sung by Hai Jung, The Girl from Pago Pago. To make their debut all the more authentic, the legendary Martin Denny plays on two of his own songs, the classic Exotica and a new song he wrote for the occasion, Forever & Ever.

Five Stars: Forbidden favorites. Don Tiki is almost too good to be true! It's neo-exotica done by hip cats in Honolulu... enough said! Buy it and raise your cool level.