Les Baxter- Music Out of the Moon
33 RPM vinyl LPs hit the market in 1948. They would eventually conceptually revolutionize the making of music, allowing for longer presentations of material (from around 25 to 50 minutes) than 78 or 45 RPM singles or EPs. In the early days of the LP, the format was used maximally by Classical Music labels–which were finally able to fit an entire Symphony on a single disc, or on a Double LP set, rather than having break the recording up into multiple singles and sell them in a box–and by Jazz artists. Duke Ellington’s longer pieces had been truncated to fit onto singles, and with the advent of the LP he was able to rerecord some of his classics at their full lengths.
Another group that made use of the LP format were the Orchestras that recorded what is variously known as Mood, Lifestyle or Easy Listening music. This was light, mostly instrumental string music meant to played in the background rather than listened to with concentration. A strain of this type of music was retrospectively labeled Exotica because its arrangers used strange instruments and sounds from “exotic” countries.
Les Baxter is one of the first and most important Exotica arrangers, and “Music Out of the Moon” a collaboration with theremin player Dr. Samuel Hoffman and composer Harry Revel is perhaps his best work. The theremin, an early electronic instrument, provided an Science Fiction feel to the recording, which bills itself as the music of outer space. Much of it closely resembles theme music of the original Star Trek TV series, where human voices ride atop soaring electronic sounds. Put this on in the background and you’ll feel like you’re living in a late 1940s version of the future.