This category is probably the most questionable one, but also very fun. Especially this year. The records that go far enough off the beaten path of surf that they don't seem eligible to be discussed in the other categories, but shouldn't go unmentioned. While they're not judged on how weird they are, hearing something new is always fun.
This can also be a hard one to judge since there's basically zero apples to apples comparison. So I try to remind myself of my guiding principle for each category: what do I think I'll listen to and enjoy the most?
And I really want to say, what a great crop for this category this year. Some true breadth, and all of them really fun records. Choosing a winner was really hard as I love them all almost equally.
Honorable Mentions
The Scimitars - Desert Tales
All the way back to the beginning of the genre, surf groups have flirted half-heartedly with middle eastern music, and finally The Scimitars asked it on a date. With a diverse array of stringed instruments, two percussionists and some thunderous bass from Balak, all while keeping one foot planted firmly in surf, this is truly a unique sound. This was a highly anticipated LP and I think it delivered.
The Breeze Blocks - Fire Island
As a one-man project, Breeze Blocks doesn't have the orchestral whizz-bang that many exotica groups have, and that's working just fine. This album seemingly effortless weaves surf, exotica and space-age pop together with a small-scale coziness that feels not-so-much taboo but more ooh (and plenty of zoo-zooo). Admittedly the surf aspect is only a part of the equation and sometimes absent, but surf songwriting feels philosophically present even when it isn't.
Doombox - DBX-1
Sure there are lots of great groups that have used synths and other electronics with surf, but Doombox is unapologetically full of thumpin' drum machines and 8-bit trills, drawing from from Happy Hardcore and Techno. There are bits where the surf element is practically nonexistent, but hopefully by then you're locked in enough to not notice. But is this just electronic music with guitar? Listen to "Night Highway Squadron" and tell me that's not built around a solid surf track. Best served to those that eat a breakfast decorated with marshmallows.
ZeroX - Halloween
After an explosion of rough, experimental EPs in 2021 with flashes of brilliance, ZeroX is back with a full-length Halloween record! Rather than feeling especially spooky, it feels like he tried to cram as much Halloween as he could into a short run-time, but that sort of chaos is his weapon. This sample-bugged surf nightmare sounds something like early Messer Chups/Messer Für Frau Müller Brundle-Fly'd into MOAM, and it never stops throwing curveballs. There's even a pretty enjoyable surf hip-hop track on here!
La Lom - Los Angeles League of Musicians
I could be wrong, but I trace the resurgence in cumbia to 2007-2008 with the Roots of Chicha compilation and Chicha Libre's album Sonido Amazonico. Cumbia has since gone in a thousand directions, has been embraced by the surf community and has taken on all sorts of hybrid guitarless forms. La Lom resets the clock, back to the more stripped down and low-key style that Chicha Libre and the original groups played. That's not a particularly amazing thing to do, the amazing thing is that it's amazing. These songs are just flat-out beautiful, and with just enough extra in there to set a mood.
And the Gremmy goes to...
Sheverb - She Rides Again
Surf music fans tend to love Spaghetti Western music. I don't even think it needs explaining, I mean "Ghost Riders in the Sky" was a thing in surf music before spaghetti westerns were a thing. So were Sheverb ever really a surf band, or did we just like them enough that we tricked ourselves into thinking they kinda were a little bit? Whatever the case may be, on She Rides Again a lot of the "everb" part of the name has been scaled back for psychedlic fuzz. Well, that may make them even less surf than before, but we tend to like fuzz too.
In fact, I dont' think we should even talk about what this album is, because I think it's about what it wants. Spaghetti Western, surf, psych, doom, just different shaped brushes to paint a swirling hallucination of a strange desert landscape. Just as anything that lives in the desert needs to adapt to it, this feels like the version of Sheverb that they've been learning to become in order to thrive.The result is a fully instrumental, guitar-based piece that is less a story as much as a 45 minute exploration of a strange place full of stories. I get lost in this album, find new things I hadn't noticed, see tracks in a different light. But when I'm in, I'm in. It grabs my attention, and rewards it with hypnotic moments like "Doom Bloom".
I'll probably continue to pretend that Sheverb are relevant to this blog as long as they make more records like this. Congrats to Sheverb, here's your PNG file.
