Surfing the Baltic Sea
French… English… Esperanto… the world’s true lingua franca is apparently surf music, as shown by this Russian Federation group’s impressive instrumental chops. Hailing from St. Petersburg, their music is inspired by some tasty Baltic Sea waves. The brainchild of artist/musician Oleg Gitarkin, the band has previously collaged a variety of musical and spoken sources, including surf rock, soundtracks and film dialog. A few fragments of the latter remain, but this is primarily an instrumental surf music album stoked by spring reverb, tremolo and vibrato bends. There are a few vocals, sung and recited, dialog clips and sound effects, but its twangy guitars and pounding drums that keep things rolling. Gitarkin’s fascination with horror films is evoked in the titles “Vincent Price Bible,†“Bruce Lee vs. Christopher Lee,†and, invoking both Herbie Hancock and 1950’s 3-D, “Rock It, Creature from the Black Lagoon.†The original “Twin Peaks Twist†brings the atmospheric creepshow to the dance floor where you’ll already be working on your surfer’s stomp. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com] 