Surfs Up #1

I’ve been a long time surf obsessive, but I’ve actually never been on a board and i’ve not been to Malibu, surf movies and especially the music on the other hand are RAD!! Over the years as I’ve bought foreign 60’s/70’s records the more I’ve been able to see the far reaching influence of bands like the Shadows, from the Asian Surf boom in Thailand and Singapore (where the Shadows had a sold out tour in ’61) to the Eleki scene in Japan (Ventures still out sell the Beatles), onto places like Peru who have a wealth of surf bands. The east has not been left untouched by the surf influence, or should that be the other way round as probably one of the biggest surf anthems by Dick Dale, who was a Lebanese/American, Misirlou or Miserlou to give it’s a traditional Greek name, was first recorded in 1927 by Michalis Patrinos and supposedly comes from Greek refugees from Turkey. This crossover influence can also be heard in the electrification of traditional players such as Omar Khorshid, Aris San and Arif Sag, all bad ass by the by....

So as the Summer starts to kick off i’ll do a few posts about some of my favourite records and from different countries, taking in exploitation records and soundtracks

First up are the Aussie Surf legends The Atlantics, signed and produced by legendary composer Sven Libaek. Libeak’s production adds an incredible experimental edge to the Shadows influenced surf sounds. Check out these few tracks and let me know what you think...