Reviews

• KFJC's Phil Dirt

  Phil hosts a great surf/instro radio show on KFJC-FM from Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. You can hear it Saturday nights from 5:30 to 8:30pm at 89.7 FM or on the Internet.

• Ray Varner

This review is from Phil Dirt's Reverb Central website, the Best Source On The Web For Instrumental Surf. Phil Dirt - Reverb Central PO Box 7240, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-7240 USA LOST LAKE Without A Paddle **** San Francisco's latest addition to the envelope edge excursion team. Lost Lake harbor references to the Mermen, the Reventlos, Pollo Del Mar, Captain Beefheart, and the surf. Their unique brand of slightly psychedelicized surf-rock instro music is both serious and fun, haunted and crystalline. This fine new CD is not for the trad nazis, but will certainly please those comfortable at the edge. Picks: Not Sorry Enough, Loser's Retreat, Clownslide, Still Life With Fool, Sirens, Dead Skin Circus, Under The Line, Del Fernando, Wreck Of The Mary Hope, Lago Perdido, Better Go, Flinch Label: Smack Daddy Records 1001 CD NOT SORRY ENOUGH*** Suave slightly watery rockin' instro with a touch of Pollo Del Mar and Los Straitjackets. Its fine melody line is more than friendly. Entirely cool, almost slippery. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have LOSER'S RETREAT*** "Loser's Retreat" has an Aqua Velvets feel to the structure, and a much more rockin' suave to the sound. Liquid smooth and exotic. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have CLOWNSLIDE*** "Clownslide" is a quirky stop-start chop kinda thing at the beginning, but quickly drops into a smooth groove alternated with liquid distortion. Moody and smooth. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have STILL LIFE WITH FOOL*** Slow and silky, in a tropical bay kind way. With elements hinting of the Endless Summer theme, this much more modern piece conveys the same kind of melody imagery and sun shine innocence. An excellent track. It's very pretty and moody. Endless Surf Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have SIRENS*** Plodding silky mood music for after hours at the beach bar-bee. Mystical and haunted, and very pretty in a backdrop sorta way, at least until the break develops the tempo and power a bit. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have DEAD SKIN CIRCUS**** One wonders about the title... reminds me of the sort of titles Martyn Jones used to come up with for Mermen songs. The howling feedback is reminiscent of the Mermen too. It's a very psychedelic surf-visionary piece. Huge sound and hair-raising tone. Very cool. Psychedelic Storm Surf Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Miserable Without It UNDER THE LINE*** This gentle and pretty piece sneaks into your whistling store room. You know the type. After a listen or two, you find the riff in your head, but aren't sure of its source. Slow and pretty. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have SOMETIMES*** Slightly countrified soft rockin' fluid... quirky enough to be inspired by the Reventlos. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have DEL FERNANDO***** Ah yes... this is nice. It sports exotica rhythms, smooth surfy 'n' sun melody lines, haunted island imagery, and major staying power. This is a real sleeper. It's not high powered, but it demands attention, from the cool beat and suave tone to the whammy and promise of romance. Exotic Surf Instrumental Performance: Notable Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Kill For It WRECK OF THE MARY HOPE*** "Wreck Of The Mary Hope" is a slow sad piece that invokes images of rafts adrift on an abandoned journey to oblivion. It presents hopeless visions of shoreless water without a breeze to blow you towards rescue. Watery Grave Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have LAGO PERDIDO**** "Lago Perdido" sports a specter's view of an abandoned shoreline where only ghosts ride the waves. Very sad and slightly psychedelic. Haunted Glassy Tube Instrumental Performance: Notable Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Miserable Without It BETTER GO*** Rockin' quirk 'n' turf, where the cowboys meet the cowgirls for a preamble to getting together. Fun. Cowboy Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have FLINCH*** Blink and you're dead. Very Reventlos' like dissonant psycho breakdown music. Mean and dangerous, dramatic and mysterious, with bits of Captain Beefheart and cuckoo's nest imprisonment. Rock Instrumental Performance: Natural Production: Average Stereo Gotta Have It Factor: Great To Have

WITHOUT A PADDLE Lost Lake - Smack Daddy Records No. 1001 Available on CD During the late 50's and early 60's, Rock and Roll radio was alive with instrumental hits. From the tightly grooved soul of Booker T, to the Hillbilly sax of Ace Cannon, it didn't take words to make a hit, just a backbeat and a melody hook. Prominent among the instrumental records of the time was an evolving genre of Surf/Twang. This highly recognizable sound was characterized by clip-clop, or backbeat shuffle, drumming and a gaggle of Fender guitars. If you need to put a name on this to stir the memory, try...The Ventures. Somewhere along the line, R&R poets became enamored with the sound of their own voices, and instrumental rock went out of fashion. In recent years Surf revivalist bands, like Los Staightjackets, have made inroads on College and Alternative radio stations. This has encouraged guitarists and writers to re-explore the possibility of making finger poppin' musical statements without trying to rhyme spoon and June. A fine and timely trend, I think. Today I'm enjoying the new CD from four Bay Area music veterans. This instrumental quartet is called, cryptically enough, Lost Lake. The independently released package contains thirteen twangy tunes, and nary a word. What it does contain is a baker's dozen of complex compositions dancing precariously on the triple edged sword of R&R, Psychedelia, and Jazz. While this CD is all danceable, all the time, it also forces you to actively listen and think. The modulations, shifting drum patterns, maze building bridges, and fat twangisms show off raucous originality tempered with discrete omage to the aforementioned Surf genre. You'll need to listen to this several times through, to "hear" it, and "get" it all. It's worth the effort. Ray Varner Ray is a reviewer for the Internet magazine, "Caldonia". He has written features and reviews for "Living Blues", "Jefferson", and several Northwest magazines and newspapers, hosted radio shows in Seattle, Eugene, OR, and Columbus, OH, produced records for the Biograph and CIS labels, and managed a popular Seattle live music club Back to Lost Lake Home Page