Guitar Player Presents: Surf

This is an early nineties release now deleted. Second hand copies fetch around $40 on Amazon. Most critics rate this the most essential surf compilation to own. Produced by John Blair respected surf music discographer and surf guitar player himself (Jon and the Nightriders) and issued by Guitar Player a most respected publication, these are the surf guitar instrumentals they consider the cream of the crop. I know after I bought this CD I had to seek out as many of the artists featured as I could find. It really kick started my second interest in surf music and may have helped kick start the nineties boom in surf and exotica music now sadly over. I've never noticed a Volume 2, I think that would have been a kicker too.

As one fan says:

A quintessential must-have for any surf music fan, this collection is the best representation, so far, of the broad spectrum of styles that made up this genre of music!! Everyone from Dick Dale, The Ventures, The Chantays to lesser known acts such as The Crossfires, The Astronauts, and more are laid out in this beautiful eighteen song album. It features some of the greatest early guitar work as well as some hard to find surf instrumental gems!!

Surfin' Knots No. 5

s it time for another Surfin' Knots? Golly I hope so cos No. 5's here already. The theme this time is Cinema Dreams. the tune may be from a soundtrack such as a Bond film or Western or merely suggested by theme or title. Reminds me of a little story I heard once.

After the budding filmmaker made his first critically acclaimed 16mm film about the fishmongers of New York, Hollywood heard about it and summoned him to the California Sun to make a 35mm extravaganza. He had studied classics such as King Kong and was aware that even greats like Henry Mancini composed tunes such as Banzai Pipeline for low budget surf exploitation movies. Not every director could hope to direct a classic such as Gone With the Wind and he had to decide whether he was Man or Mancini. Even Napoleon had gone solo on occasions. He thought of pictures with statuettes of Maltese Falcons and even Moorish Idols. He pondered who had killed 007 by making ever more ridiculous versions of his movies and talking of ridiculous he just hoped he wouldn't have to direct the next Scooby Doo flick. He knew he wouldn't be easily swayed into making some cheapo picture about a Secret Agent Man and he shuddered as he thought that even an Australian had played Bond once. Over at the Western set a stuntman lay in the dust his empty gun beside him and a crumpled star pinned to his jacket. He could hear the eerie laughter of the Ghost of Cecil B riding in a Cadillac De Ville or was it a '57 Fury?

In the end he was offered a film called Bikini Drag an el cheapo beach blanket bingo movie with a budget of $99. As he sipped his margarita in the cantina with Beguine the Bond humming in the background he thought well it's only a movie.

Planet Xtabay milestone

To help Planet Xtabay celebrate 400,000 visits which will come up shortly here is a companion volume to his The Alien Planet compilation called the Beaches of Planet X.

All these tracks have planet in the title and three even feature Planet X.

From the surfy bongo sound of Fifty Foot Combo fresh from the beaches of Planet Belgium we also have some nice electronica courtesy of Kraftwerk and Orbital and even some groovy sitar work from the legendary Ananda Shankar.

So sit back turn your volume level to 11 and your reverb level to 13 and enjoy the Bitches err I mean Beaches of Planet X.

The Beaches of Planet X

01. Fifty Foot Combo - The Brain From Planet X.
02. Los Banditos - Fremder Planet
03. Kraftwerk - Planet Der Visionen
04. Orbital - Planet Of The Shapes
05. Los Straitjackets - Wrong Planet
06. Reventlos - Planet Reventlo
07. Chris Shahin - Water Planet
08. TCB Hit Squad - Beaches Of Planet X
09. Lemongrass - Planet Tears
10. Metalunas - Swingin Planet
11. Cusco - Seaplanet
12. Visit Venus - Planet O
13. Space Cossacks - Planet Of The Apes
14. Infrareds - Celluloid Planetoid
15. Ananda Shankar - Planet-X