Exotica, the 1950s instrumental genre, is largely remembered as kitsch—an image many revivalists have been happy to play with. Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica transcend those roots without abandoning them. Like those marvelously strange Hi-Fi LPs from the '50s, the arrangements for Ho's originals open onto visions of tropical glens, tiki huts and warm cascades hidden in the verdant forest of vibes, gongs and strings. The Orchestrotica, however, are crack musicians and bring a chamber jazz sensibility suggesting what the Modern Jazz Quartet might have sounded like had they lightened up and ordered a round of mai tais.
