This debut EP from Gemini 13 starts out unassumingly with a pretty traditional surf instro "Tijuana Spygame". But then it gets a little more showy with "Mumtosh" and gets MUCH more interesting with "Tiglath Pileser". There's some really interesting stuff here: great division of duties between lead and rhythm guitar. I hope they might rerecord some of these tracks in a subsequent release, as I don't feel like the production is allowing the oomph some of these tracks deserve. Still an eye-opener! Or ear-opener I guess.
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Khruangbin are a pretty distant cousin of surf, but they're worth mentioning here because:
a) They're guitar-based and mostly instrumental
b) I've posted about them before
c) I am going nuts over this album and it wouldn't surprise me if there are other surf fans that would too.
Last week I strolled in with a ton of 45s... this weekend was the Record Raid and I've got an ENTIRELY NEW batch, plus I picked up those fancy Shadows and Atlantics LPs. Some great brand new stuff from Dirty Fuse, The 427's, Khruangbin, and Black River Manifesto as well! Gonna be one of those weeks where I have so much to play I'm going to end up winging a lot of it. That's often a good thing!
Here's what I played last week: 11/2/15
This EP is Dirty Fuse's first with their new guitarist after their previous guitarist went Back to Brazil. I'd still say this sounds like the Dirty Fuse we're familiar with, but I can only say that because they're an adventurous group and change is expected. There's still prominent saxophone, there's a great sense of depth to the sound - partially nice recording, but the bass definitely rounds it out as well. "Evolution" starts it out as a pretty aggressive number, but you get a lot more chilled-out with "Back to Brazil" and "Wonderland" which are nice-n-easy sunny day tracks.
I'm under the impression that The 427's EP Surf Noir got a bit of a attention in surf circles, and I don't doubt that they'll find an audience with their first full-length Mavericks. They've got a pretty trad sound with two guitars, bass, and drums, but the arrangements and riffs are all very catchy and memorable. On one listen, "Fake Betty", "Night of the Living Surf" and "Urchin Stomp" were standouts. On "Yellowbelly" and "The Blue Cactus" they stretch out a bit with added instrumentation for a spaghetti western sound.
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