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LONDON, WEDNESDAY 8, OCTOBER AT 8.45PM
MAMBO ITALIANO: EXOTICA EXPLORED
AT LONDON'S BARBICAN CINEMA
Presented by The Hammett Story Agency
Barbican film welcomes Italian writer and musicologist FRANCESCO ADINOLFI to the Cinema stage to discuss his book «Mondo Exotica», a study of Western culture’s fascination with 'exotica' during the 50s and 60s through music, with a focus on Martin Denny, Yma Sumac and the later subgenres of exotica such as the mood music and spy music composed for Italian films of the 60s.
Francesco will be interviewed by KEN HOLLINGS , reviewer, novelist and cultural historian («Welcome to Mars», «Destroy All Monsters») with a special interest in Cold War-era popular culture.To complement, this discussion will be followed by a screening of Mario Bava’s cult hit DIABOLIK .This tongue-in-cheek 60s Italian spy-thriller starring John Phillip Law & Marisa Mell was based on a popular Italian comic-book series and is a fine example of the kind of exotica-influenced film score that Francesco Adinolfi covers in his book.BARBICAN WEBLINK: http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=7982
REVIEWS
THE WIRE
«(...)The moods, fetishes and distractions that originally informed exotic Easy Listening are evoked with an enthusiastic attention to the detail: the lounge as artificial paradise, the Tiki idol as libidinal totem and the cocktail as cultural mirage have all been lovingly researched and laid bare (...). A limited number of interviews with some of exotica's prime movers and shakers, most notably Martin Denny, Esquivel, Piero Piccioni, provide additional insight and immediacy to this fascinating study. (...) Complex issues of cultural appropriation, mass consumption, alienation and escape become closely entwined, to be successfully shaken loose only in the book's final third, where Adinolfi examines the Italian take on exotica. Rome, with its bustling film community and its restless nightlife, proved to be particularly receptive to exotica's false allures during the 1960's and 1970's» (Ken Hollings, The Wire , April 2008)
RECORD COLLECTOR
«From Tiki to tacky, Mondo Exotica follows the development of the exotic sound in its broadest sense, through space escapades, crime jazz, soundtracks and even library music right up to the late 20th Century copyists. Crammed with facts about sounds, composers, their histories, reminiscences and a whole lot more, Adinolfi has more than done his research, which, in such an odd, diverse and obscure field of music, has to be applauded» (Jonny Trunk, Record Collector , September 2008)
VIEWS
« Mondo Exotica is a cornucopia of data documenting lounge music and culture and their mid-1990s revival. I have to admit that it is the best compendium of Lounge Culture in the world!!! Francesco Adinolfi has written a book that is as fun to read as the lounge lifestyle is fun to live!» (Otto Von Stroheim, dj, founder of Tiki News , and organizer of the annual Tiki Oasis weekend event)
«You want alternative culture? Here’s the real thing. Francesco Adinolfi looks beyond the camp value and discovers the exotic urges that drove a generation that was supposed to be respectable. This terrific book reminds you that some of the most unique records ever made can still be found at your local garage sale - and that it’s never too late to discover how to live» (Brett Milano, author of The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock & Roll and Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting )
BIO, BOOKS & RADIO SHOWS
Francesco Adinolfi is a music journalist, broadcaster and selector/dj. He’s in charge of Ultrasuoni , weekly music supplement of il manifesto , one of Italy’s most relevant daily newspapers. He has hosted Ultrasuoni Cocktail, a cult hit programme on Rai Radio 2, Italy’s national station.
For two years he’s been hosting Popcorner, a mind expanding mix of breakbeat, electro lounge, funk, ultrabossa and incredibly strange news. Through the years relevant national (Montefiori Cocktail, Doktor Zoil, Robert Passera etc.) and international artists (Skeewiff, Lack Of Afro, Feature Cast, Fdel, Yasuharu Konishi) have contributed to his radio shows. He’s been a music journalist for 30 years, also contributing to famous national and international magazines such as Great Britain's Melody Maker , Sounds , Record Mirror ; Spain's Revoluciones Por Minuto , Canada's Music Express , Australia's Juke ; Japan's Crossbeat etc. In 1989 he published Suoni dal ghetto. La musica rap dalla strada alle hit-parade (Sounds from the ghetto. Rap music from Street to Stardom). Issued by Costa & Nolan, the book was the author’s graduation thesis at Rome’s University. Mondo Exotica is his most recent book about the exotic impact of specific music styles such as exotica, lounge, latin groove, b-movie and tv soundtracks on the western imagination. Mondo Exotica is published in the Usa by Duke University Press and distributed in the Uk by Combined Academic Publishers. Francesco Adinolfi is also a music consultant for relevant Italian tv shows.
