Milt Raskin is best remembered among exotica fans for what he himself may have considered one of his less memorable efforts: Exotic Percussion, also released as Kapu, on the notorious Crown Records. Unlike many of Crown's releases, which packaged public domain performances or uncredited cuts from far-earlier sessions and packaged them to take advantage of whatever musical trend was getting sales at the moment, Exotic Percussion is a suite of Raskin originals, apparently recorded specifically for the release. It shares many of the elements of other classic jungle exotica classics such as Les Baxter's Ritual of the Savage, Robert Drasnin's Voodoo!, or Stanley Wilson's Pagan Love: titles evoking primitive languages and pagan rituals; a mixture of unusual percussion instruments tossed in in imitation of native chants and drum songs; and good old Hollywood film music.
