This quartet was a largely unrecognized group on Japan's indie MIDI label, and would have stayed that way if two of the four members had not gone on to gain Western credibility with their next band, Buffalo Daughter. As it was, Havana Exotica came out in the early '90s as part of a neo-lounge sub-movement happening in Japan, which included Yann Tomita and the Doopees. As a four-piece girl band, they made dub and funk music, and dabbled in weird analog synth noises. Yann Tomita produced the first album, while Pizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi produced the second. The band split soon after and Sugar Yoshinaga and Yumiko Ohno (then known as Nonol) went on to form Buffalo Daughter, where the synthesizer noodling continued in earnest. Nearly forgotten, a best-of, Weaving, was released in 1999. ~ Ted Mills, Rovi