not just another Space/Surf Instrumental, but a true space hymn with a sweeping 'theremin' sound above all.

A song that lives up to it's name. On the surface, a very easy-going trumpet, harpsichord and xylophone flutter about over a very tense rythm that hints as something sinister. An excellent use of contrasting elements to set a particular filmic mood.

If ever there was an excuse to learn to speak French, this is it. Mesmerisizng guitar work, the back beat is so.....right. Just what the hell are they talking about?

Great lyrics. I think I hear a sitar.

A great kind of euro-surf discoteque tune. Trobbing percussion and a cool snakey guitar. Claus did a lot of these "Brass-ploitation" LP's for RCA in the mid sixtes. Some surf, latin , and a really cool soul one that i've been trying to track down. Very solid stuff from one of the best arrangers ever!

I've been a huge fan of the UK-based "wuss-rock" band Coldplay since their debut album "Parachutes." One night, as I was watching a much-anticipated episode of my favorite TV show, "Smallville" - an episode called "Rosetta" guest-starring Christopher Reeve - I heart the heart-rendering chords of lead singer Christ Martin's piano and thought aloud "Hey, that's Coldplay!" I hadn't yet heard that song, so I surfed onto a "Smallville" fansite to check the title and found that it was called "The Scientist" from Coldplay's most recent album "A Rush of Blood to the Head."
"The Scientist" is a song that will remind you of being in love - more likely, of being in love with someone who doesn't love you back or with someone whom you pissed off and doesn't want to be around you anymore. It's basically the most perfect song about unrequieted love. It is beautiful and haunting, as many of Coldplay's songs are. Give it a listen. You won't regret it.

Killer surf guitar from the undisputed King of the Surf Guitar.

Ed Harcourt has now committed this song to tape three times in three years. Firstly on the excellent debut mini-LP "Maplewood" in 2000. It was fleshed out and re-recorded for his full-length debut LP, "Here Be Monsters", in 2001, and now surfaces again in 2002 as the a-side of his most recent single. This time it's even better still, and comes accompanied with a great video. This is classic, piano led pop which could have been recorded at any time in the last 30 years. Comparisons to Randy Newman, Nick Drake andTom Waits have been forthcoming, and not unjustified. A great song which just gets better with each trip to the studio.

This sounds like it should be a generic bossa nova cash-in film song, but instead, it's strangely haunting and gripping to my ears. While it's a sweetly orchestrated piece (a bossa nova guitar and beat, a flute melody, and a Stan Getz-esque tenor sax, backed by a subdued orchestra) I feel as if there's something menacing just beneath the surface. However, it's so subtle, this could be in my head. It's taken from the 'The Glass Bottom Boat'; maybe I have to see the movie and decide.

A rockin' one and a half minute long instrumental unlike any other Delerue work I've come across. If you know of any other Delerue work like this, please let me know. The arrangement includes really heavy bass, wailing brass, surf guitar, organ, and drums. Maybe it's a little generic, but I like it.

Heatwave's first two albums can almost be seen as prototypes for Michael Jackson's breakthrough album "Off the Wall." With Rod Temperton, future Quincy Jones and MJ collaborator, driving this album the sound is both funky and catchy, sophisticated and accessible. "Lay It On Me" is an overlooked album track that bubbles and gurgles under the surface of the groove until the chorus arrives with strings soaring for the ectasy of Johnnie Wilder's sweet vocals, "lay it on me, lay your sweet love on me!" Beautifully arranged and excellently executed and just one of many classics of their debut album.

Not since the mid-eighties have Heaven 17 nailed a song so beautifully. "Let Me Go" eschews icy synthetic, new wave romance gone wrong. "Dive" updates it for a newer generation. Beautiful music and a sound which makes you wonder where the hell they've been hiding for umpteen years. Sadly, heaven 17 disappeared again after 1996 and have yet to resurface... The album "Bigger Than America" I consider to be their best.

ok, go out and get whatever jack johnson you can get your hands on now! I first fell in love w/ his first album back before anyone knew him. I will admit though, that my little bro and I came up with some pretty hilarious alternate lyrics for his first big song on the radio. It took me a good while to get used to his second album, now I probably listen to that more, and then again with his third album, again, it took me a while. but he is truly great.
he started out filming pro surfing videos, and you can see where he is coming from. really chill, folksy music. good stuff

In my experience John Gregory is one of the most consistently superb British arrangers of the 60s and 70s. I've never really heard anything I didn't like by him, although I understand that he was very prolific and that I've barely scratched the surface so far.

His arrangements have simultaneously a bite and a beauty that few others were able to match. Although not much of his work is available on CD, there's one excellent disc, 'Mission Impossible and other themes', that compiles most of his 'big band crime jazz' work, dating from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s. The disc isn't very excitingly packaged and can be had very cheaply, but it's full of outstanding tracks.

'Fire and Rain' is from a 70s album (I have it on a Philips sampler from the early 70s), and is a sumptuously arranged instrumental in the vein of some of the work of other British arrangers of the era, such as Johnny Harris and John Schroeder.

Of course, the song was written and originally recorded by James Taylor. His track is quite nice, but maybe it helped that I came to this version 'fresh', without having heard the original. This happens to me a lot, and Gregory's full arrangement and jazzy touches definitely elevate the track for me.

The melody is carried by a beautifully played trumpet, and later by the strings. There's a strong beat throughout, and a particularly groovy break towards the end with some great brass.

I came across this on what's probably quite an obscure compilation called Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain Vol 2. I know very little about it. It's kind of like classic surf, but with some overtly 50s big band influences thrown in. The production sounds very odd - I'd guess this was recorded maybe in the early 1970s but I could be way off. Lots of nice horns and reverb-laden guitar and some weird radio-interference type effects.

No one talks about this band much. Not in my experience, anyway. It's all instrumental, so I guess they're not for people who are lost without vocals and lyrics. But have a listen - to me they really seem utterly superb. I would love to see them live.

I only have a couple of albums, but they're great. This one was released in 1996 (shit - that was 9 years ago!), but recorded in 1990. Really beautiful twangy surf-pop that fits in perfectly with the whole David Lynch mood that I find so appealing. The album is an intoxicating mix of energetic surf tracks and slower, more atmospheric ones like this. Their recent 'Local Warming' album is great too. Can anyone recommend me any more of their tracks?

My obsession with this band continues. From a CD that failed to sell on ebay for 50 cents comes this amazing cut - a beautiful instrumental with prominent guitar and organ. While it's surf influenced, it goes beyond that. I'm kind of lost for words, but it's one of those 'This is the best track ever' tracks. You know what I mean?

Damn, the new Portishead LP is good!
This song mixes eerie theremin tones, acoustic and surf guitars, Kraftwerk-esque keyboards and a swell kraut-rock drumbeat.
Meanwhile Beth Gibbons drifts in from above, doing her best "Sandy Denny sings the Nico Songbook" impersonation.
Outstanding!

Satanist surf rock! (or a reasonable facsimile of that would sound like, anyway.)
From the land of polar bears and fjords
comes this insanely massive-sounding piece of black metal with a heavy dose of Dick Dale influences. It's quite poppy for a black metal tune, if you can see past the growling. I have to admit I've never actually listened too closely to the lyrics, i'm sure they're very misantrophic and gloomy and all, but this song feels very uplifting to me somehow. same thing as with Primal Scream's Detroit and Ennio Morricone's Magic and Extacy, i guess.
the synth effects round it out nicely, the guitars are fast and furious, and you got to love that drumming.


(One of these days I'm gonna have to make a mixtape with the world's most glaringly insane shifts of tone from one song to the next. This will fit nicely in between Dean Martin and Jean Jaques Perrey...)

Working on the premise that if you are going to cover a song then do something with it .then Shawn Lee wears the crown .Missy Elliots ground breaking hip hop giant has been turned into a dark surf twangy guitar driven celebration of Tarntino-esque proportions .the relentless plink plonk riff of the original is replaced by a mammoth guitar line which builds to a Mexiacana brass bound climax.There is a whole album of contemporary covers in this vein all of which need to be heard .

A blend of Mexican, a sprinkling of country and a dose of Southern soul "Goodnight Moon" is a track off the album "I Ought to Give You a Shot in the Head for Making Me Live in This Dump" : classy!

When a song hits me - I will play it like it's going out of fashion, or in this case, coming into fashion!

Until four days ago I knew nothing about this band - I happened to be surfing around looking for inspiration and accidently came upon this song, the singer whom I now know as Ambrosia Paisley has a sultry, quirky voice and given to this song makes it feel like It should be played acoustic in some smoky bar with swing doors, and a bar man called Hank offering neat JD's.

Although that's probably not too far from reality it is being played world wide thanks to Mr Tarrantino who has used this track in his movie soundtrack - Kill Bill 2 - which kind of makes sense to me granted that my original search on Google four days ago started with Nancy Sinatra, which I also found out "Bang Bang my baby shot me down" (another recommendation should I add!) was lent to the Kill Bill 1 soundtrack.

Regressing, I do not know if any other tunes on this album are worthy but Goodnight Moon now firmly has a place in the soundtrack to my life.

The recording may be raw, but this song reeks of pure insane genius. 60's-inspired organ-fueled sleaze. The band boasts the former organist of "The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black". This is one of many instrumental numbers consisting of guitar, organ, shakers and what sounds like an old drum machine. Shamelessly derivitive, lo-fi and spooky. It's one part surf and equal parts garage and swing. Henry Mancini-meets-The Mummies-meets-The Stray Cats.

An exotic, atmospheric and unique masterpiece, this is taken from the portion of surfer flick 'Follow Me' in which the surfers visit India. The tune drifts along with some sitar and spooky vocals before exploding into life with a furiously catchy and groovy segment with piano and plucked strings.

The B-52's were one of several late-'70s bands for which there was no real category. With their modified surf guitar sound, their thrift-shop fashion sense, and their jokey demeanor, they certainly weren't in the rock & roll mainstream, but they exhibited none of punk's sneering rebelliousness or musical aggression, either � the only anarchy that seemed to interest the B-52's was of the sartorial variety. "Rock Lobster" was the first B-52's song to catch popular attention, and it's easy to see why. The minimalist guitar lick is like a beach-bum's rendition of the James Bond theme, the one-note organ ostinato complements it perfectly, and Fred Scheider's campy sprechgesang jumps out at you immediately. Yet despite the song's self-consciously weird texture and silly lyrics about earlobes falling off and communal towel coordination, there's a thread of darkness weaving through it. Make no mistake � this is not a song with hidden meaning lurking below the surface. But its surface is a little more complicated than it seems to be at first. For one thing, it's almost seven minutes long, and it does start to drag toward the end. Right when it does, you notice the mood getting darker � Schneider delivers lines about "having fun" and "baking in the sun" in a hoarse croak, and the guitar starts sounding repetitive in a slightly creepy way. Suddenly you realize that the whole song has been in a minor key, and as Schneider shouts and the guitar barks out its angular riff over and over, you start to wonder if maybe there's some kind of commentary going on here. But then Kate Pierson's angelic voice comes in with a surprisingly pretty falling harmony part that can only be described as a descant, which repeats several times, gradually paring itself down to a single phrase, and abruptly the song is over. The whole song ends up being a goofy party confection with a slightly crunchy center � a pretty satisfying overall flavor combination.
(AMG)

Another of my favorite Beach Boys tracks, 'warmth of the sun' is a haunting ballad, sung astoundingly beautifully (Carl Wilson does the lead vocals) over a twangy picked electric guitar. From the astounding album 'Shut down vol. 2' which also gave us 'Don't Worry Baby'! 6 years ago I thought that the Beach Boys were pretty much 'Surfin' USA and other surfer hits'. I'm glad I was able to get beyond this - there's so much to discover!

Possibly the most beautiful and complex pop song ever written. This is the apex of Brians foray into modular music. Loved by Bernstein and McCartney. This song will take you years to sink in. Perfect. I have heard some amazing versions he has done of this equally as powerful.

arguably one of my favorite faint songs. but they're all good. the faint is all about the eighties synth-pop aesthetic, but they reach out of that style enough to keep it interesting. a lot of their stuff, this song in particular, shows this keen sense of being able to combine the dark("macabre" even, if you will.) synth/drum machine sound and equally dark lyrics with catchy riffs in a way that keeps the pessimistic, shadowy side bubbling at the surface. kinda reminds me of joy division, not so much in the style (even though there are some points where the two sound similar) but in the general tone. 'the conductor' is all about the atmospheric key board drones and 'plunk' sounds, plus the vocoder thing they use on the vocals.

legendary primal surf track with werewolf noises. Talk about a guitar sound with authoroty! I really like the tribal drums and the kitchy spoken(or should that be spooky?)word intro. one of the coolest halloween compilation tracks around. The Cramps love it.

"Don't you know that my hate is everlasting, baby?" The story of the Monks is the story of rock & roll...in an alternate reality, perhaps. Take a bunch of bored US servicemen stationed in Germany about to be discharged, put them in a band, and have them decide to freak out the establishment by dressing in black capes, shaving their heads into monk's tonsures and wearing nooses as neckties. Perhaps not so shocking in these days after punk rock, but this was 1965. Oh, and don't forget the electric banjo. What began as a fairly standard surf/beat combo called the Torquays mutated into this band, churning out some of the most nihilistic music you've ever heard, even by German standards.

"Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa ooma mow mow papa oom mow ma mow..." The Trashmen's crazed co-mingling of The Rivingtons' "Papa Oom-Mow-Mow" and "The Bird's The Word" may be the most perfect rock 'n' roll song of them all. Meaningless / beyond meaning. An atomic audio monolith. Pure drive with no purpose. A divine visitation that lives outside logic.

the song that made me rediscover them. the intro begins and shifts into something else. the lyrics are delivered carefully, almost in hesitation, while the music itself is more forceful. i'm not sure what else i could add.

it may be as you say
i'll admit
but you don't sound convinced
between the surface you and the surface me
you didn't touch me
it may be as well that
i didn't see the point
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me

i suppose it's just hollow
no idea--no spark
when i thought that in order to survive
you need to touch me
all of the mes
it may be as well that
i didn't see the point
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me

Vocal version of the classic 'Exodus' Theme. Reverberated deep 60s stereophonic sound, Andy Tielman's voice, the powerful background choir and the reverberated guitars make this version a true masterpiece.
(there's an incredible story on the listener reviews at Amazon about this band)

This is one of those mindblowing tracks that occasionally turns up when you least expect it. I bought a generic looking 'Top TV Themes' EP on the Pye Golden Guinea label, mainly because it had a version of the 'Out of this World' theme, which I've recommended elsewhere on this site. But I was disappointed - it turned out that this 'Out of this World' was exactly the same Tony Hatch version that I already had (the EP does not list any track credits).

I listened on, not expecting much, particularly from 'Maigret', a nice enough theme by Ron Grainer, but one that is a kind of accordian waltz!

Imagine my surprise when this turned out to be some kind of trashy, twangy, swampy surf pop masterpiece! It sounds like one of the very best Joe Meek produced instrumentals from the early 60s.

I'm inferring that this is Tony Hatch, since he did the 'Out of this World' and was a staff arranger at Pye in the early 60s. But if anyone else can shed a different light on this recording, I'd be pleased to hear about it!

This is a simple but rather bitter pop song, although on the surface it sounds quite sweet. If I recall correctly, it was written about the singer that Twinkle was seeing at the time. The gentle arrangement features acoustic guitar and some brass. It's not hard to hear why Morrissey liked this song enough to cover it with The Smiths.

Twinkle has a lovely clear voice, and much as I respect Moz, this version towers above the one done by The Smiths, which suffers from a strange mix of production styles. That said, I have a strange mix of emotions on hearing the song, since I heard the Smiths version at 14, but only got into this one in the last few years.

Yes!!!! Found it!
I live in England (nearly 20 years, but am originally from Holland. Saw twice a new commercial the last 2 days on tv here (can't remember what it was for), but regonised the song that was played in it (although it wasn't the original version). I knew it was a hit in the sixties. And always liked it. But hadn't heard it for years! My partner ,who's english, knows and does remember a hell of a lot about (popular)music and whenever a song is played HAS to announce WHO, WHAT and IN WHICH YEAR IT WAS A HIT! Get's a bit annoying at times.
He said he knew it from a "chill"-album, but I told him I was certain that it had been a hit in the sixties.
After surfing the web for an hour orso tonight, and not even quite sure if the title was "Daydream" and not knowing at all what the bands name was. At some point I found out that it could be Wallace Collection, but eventually after finding your website, and you were the only one I was able to hear that song, I got it right!
Thank you so much. The song brought back so many memories! I will keep your website in my favorites list. It was a great help.
Thanks again, Trijnie

Kinda surfy bouncy arrangement of this old Gershwin number, with five-part harmonies! Free Design ain't got nothin' on these cats!

Due to the constant everyday trippings, one learns to walk looking down, watching the cracks, watching the steps, watching the pebbles. That's how I found this track. I took a dive recently and came back to the surface with this song.
One little tune, one refrence and one image, these three combined make a lonely humming of this indie tune almost orchestral, de description of the saddest episodes or maybe just the most difficult ones, the unexplainable feeling, translated into a postcard of the big ocean, the clouds, the sun, the isolation, the danger, the sharks down by the surface surrounding your tiny boat, a breeze, a guitar, however you dive, always assured that seasons come and go.