The only artist on Bandcamp for whom I've clicked the "Buy digital discography" button is not a surf artist, but Estonian composer/producer/whatever Misha Panfilov. When I first came across his work it was mostly raw funk with a spacey element to it, and I've since appreciated his meanderings into jazz, ambient, and warbly synths. I almost always enjoy it, usually love it. One of his projects is Penza Penza, whose first album is some of the noisiest, stripped-down primal funk I've heard. Over the next three albums, Penza Penza seemed to become less overtly concerned with funkiness and more with making oddball instrumentals, none of which I'd call surf by any real stretch.
And then I guess it did stretch! For Penza Penza's fifth album I seemed to have been granted a wish: a Misha Panfilov surf album of sorts! It's on the album cover, it's in the album title, and it's in the music! Somewhat!
When you want to hear a surf album from a non-surf artist, what exactly are you asking for? John Reis of Hot Snakes made one and it was kind of a dream, his guitar tone adapted to surf songs beautifully (and loudly!). But Penza Penza/Panfilov isn't just a guitar tone, and the result is more chemical reaction than cocktail. But fuck it, down the hatch!
The first track "Hang Loose" is a surf song, right? Surfbeat on drums, aggressive, riff-based guitar, definitely some reverb but that guitar tone is something else. Law-breaking fuzztone switching off clumsily with rusted through Jack the Ripper sound. If this song were a person, he'd be thrown out of a bar just by the looks of him.
"Carl Wilson's Morning Routine" is less strictly surf. Less strictly anything. Guitar sounds the strings are rusty wire, playing jump blues with the keyboardist slowly losing grip on gravity. It works though, this is the sorta stuff that I like from Penza Penza.
Between these two you might have some vague idea of the vibe at least. There are songs I'd call surf. "Summer Bats", "Ro-Rotation", maybe "Garfish" until it goes further underwater. There are songs that are overtly borrowing from surf, like how "Surf Rodeo" has probably some of the clearest surftone on the record on rhythm while fuzz and noise scribble on top. "Flying Over the Sunset" borrows a clavioline from The Tornados after it's been thrown off the back of a truck.
And sometimes we're just doing whatever's fun in the moment, like the celestial "Foxtrot" or disco-dancing "Another Try". I love all of this, because I was already a Penza Penza fan separately from being a surf fan. And this is still very much a Penza Penza record. This isn't a "know the rules, know how to break them" situation, this is "why do you have so many rules?". Even the album title feels like an insincere attempt at co-opting 60's surf culture, crashing it rather than adopting it, which seems like fair game 60 years later.
So how do I feel about my wish now that it's been granted? I had seriously mused to myself about this happening, and I'm very happy, but also asking myself "what did I expect?'. If I'd have gotten a more traditional surf album with guitars run through a surfybear, then why would I even want to hear Misha's angle on it? The question has been answered, and the answer is some of the crustiest, moldy, distracted attempts at surf music I've heard, and I'm going to appreciate that for what it is.
It's available on vinyl but with pretty brutal shipping for us yankees. If you want a little guidance through Misha's non-surf catalog, some personal favorites are En Route, Paradise Cove, The Sea Will Outlive Us All, Heli Maagia, and Beware of Penza Penza. I've enjoyed all the Penza Penza records but I'd say this is probably my favorite after the first.
