In the midst of working on a new album, exotica collective Don Tiki is throwing a love fest tomorrow, with a new set list sprinkled with sex-me-up songs and special guest percussionist and DJ Frank Orrall.

Hawai'i's heir to the exotica throne, left vacant by Martin Denny's death in 2005, keeps expanding its sound and reach.

Calling the Aloha Tower gig "musical foreplay," Don Tiki's Lloyd Kandell explains, it was time for a new show.

"Our last concert was at the Honu Festival on the North Shore last June. We're all about romance and sensuality, and we love playing at this venue — it's outdoor, it's going to be a beautiful night, the cruise ships will be right there ... and we're here to stir passions."

Kandell, quick-witted ad man by day, can't help himself: "It's tiki-torch songs for lovers!"

For Forbidden Love, Don Tiki has added romantic standards to the set list: "Moonglow," "My Funny Valentine," "Let's Do It." Also in the mix is the new original tune "Pagan Lust" and a cover of "Bla Bla Cha Cha Cha" by the uke-strumming Japanese pop band Petty Booka.

Flying into town from Chicago for the gig is former Palolo boy Frank Orrall, frontman for Poi Dog Pondering, sometime Thievery Corporation member and DJ. Orrall will spin a post-show session. Coming from California is singer Delmar "The Natives Are Restless" DeWilde.

Of course, the Don Tiki Dancers, belly dancer (and singer) Willow Chang, sexy soprano Sherry Shaoling and birdcall-and-percussion scion Lopaka Colón round out the show, for an extra injection of exotica.

An "Arabian Fantasy Suite" will include covers of the Shocking Blue's (remember "Venus"?) Middle-Easternish "Love Buzz" and Martin Denny's "Cobra" (yes, that's when Chang shimmies on stage).

Members will sport new romantic looks — keep an eye out for Chang and Shaoling's Dorothy Lamour- and Marlene Dietrich-inspired style.

What's it like organizing a group, with such far-flung members?

"Can you imagine what it's like keeping a troupe of 20 together? We live this life, we live together in my tiki kibbutz," Kandell says, laughing. "Actually, everybody would love to be doing this full time, but we don't always have the luxury to do as much as we like."

SCOOP: THE NEW DON TIKI CD

Forget tales of the South Pacific; Honolulu's kitsch loungemeisters have turned to Southeast Asia for inspiration.

"It's quite an espionage tale in itself," says Lloyd Kandell, aka Fluid Floyd, Don Tiki's self proclaimed "congenial host."

His partner in tiki and the band's "music shaman," Kit Ebersbach, aka Perry Coma, researched and found "amazing instruments from Burma, Vietnam and Thailand," says Kandell. "One is like a gong circle, another is a drum circle — all these tuned drums — and they're ornate and elaborate, and covered in fake jewels and gold leaf. That will add a whole new level of exotic instruments."

Now in the Don Tiki arsenal is a wa pattalar, like a bamboo mallet, and a Burmese kyee naung waing (the aforementioned gong circle).

"It's Southeast Asian instruments meets South American rhythms," says Kandell, who has a producer-composer relationship with Ebersbach. Kandell comes up with "song titles in search of tunes. I'll have a concept and title, and Kit arranges and fleshes the whole thing out."

The CD (Kandell won't reveal the title, although he says it's "killer") will be released later this year.

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.