Mr. Ho's Orchestra - Third River Rangoon ... a review.

In 2010, Mr. Ho decided to release a series of albums over the next few years under the title "Exotica for Modern Living." These records will attempt to take the best elements of mid-century living, music, and culture and merge them with modern life to provide listeners with a "retro futuristic" listening experience.

The beautiful  artwork by Javier Garcia

The series opened with "The Unforgettable Sounds of Esquivel" featuring 23 musicians playing Mr. Ho's transcriptions of the lost arrangements of Mexico's king of space-age pop. Following this came "Third River Rangoon," featuring third-stream exotica music.I've recently downloaded this and I'm not regretting it... particularly when you can pick up the digital download and CD for $9.99 from their official website.... almost double that on iTunes!

It truly is a wonderful piece of modern exotica. I could give you a review but would rather leave it to the professionals who can far more eloquently articulate what I want to say...

"… Mr. Ho's new album Third River Rangoon, by his shapeshifting ensemble Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica may have been inspired by that subgenre, but it's considerably more magical. It leaves far more to the imagination, a lushly nocturnal collection whose most impressive feat of sorcery is getting a simple lineup of vibraphone, bass flute, bass and percussion to create the sweep of a hundred-piece orchestra. The production is genius…"Lucid Culture. 2011.

"… a perfect cocktail of mid-century 'space age bachelor pad' music deliciously accented with chamber, jazz, classical, and world music…"—Jonathan Perry. Boston Globe. 2011.

Go get it...