It's kind of a given when doing a review that the band is, well, a band, and the album is an album. Truthfully I don't think I understand what Chung Kings are. Their facebook description is "Chung Kings is a moveable feast of like-minded musicians expressing its love for Lo-Fi Surf, Ethio-Jazz, Latin, Rhythm & Blues and Exotica." I'm not sure that really clarifies it much. They've described this album as a compilation, which explains the names of groups in parentheses.

The initial few EPs from Les Robots were immediately exciting: they were bar-none the best modern Joe Meek sound-alike that I'd heard. Thankfully, they didn't keep us waiting for long to hear a full-length, and I think it delivers on the promise of those EPs.

Despite hearing their first EP, something about this led me to believe that it would be fast-n-nasty metal-tinged surf, but Mare Incognitum actually adopts a pretty normal modern surf sound at a normal pace, just dwelling a bit more on the darker side. That's no complaint though, each of these is punchy and fun, almost always danceable, and with a good sense of when to go big, when to sound a little nastier, and generally how to stay interesting and fun.

Cyclist Conspiracy - El Beso de la Muerte

Definitely some ambition in this group. Two of the tracks have a middle-eastern sorta vibe and can be a little more experimental and less rock&roll minded than your average surf group. The tracks that aren't in the East are firmly in the West! The third track (sort of a vocal track) is a goofy approach to a Spaghetti Western sound that really captures the vibe -- I love it. This is their third release and their others seem a little less surf, more psychedelic, but just as pleasing. This one is a free download.

For a while WJLP's Petomaniac was one of the best free surf/instro albums you could find on bandcamp. They've since decided to get paid for it, though still pretty damn affordable (and very worth it) at €5. Though they've sprinkled instrumentals here and there since then, but they're back to a full instrumental record with a spacey sci-fi movie theme.

The Aloha Sluts have a brand new 7" out on Tombstone Records Holland. It's got 4 songs on it and features some great-as-usual artwork from Shawn Dickinson. The only thing I've heard from it is from the preview below, but the rest of their material to date has been punchy and fun -- surfy enough for trad fans, but pretty loud too.

Stories from Shamehill are a three-piece from Amsterdam, and though they've been together since 2012 I believe this is their debut EP. They have a solid modern surf sound, not overdoing the reverb and keeping a good upbeat pace. My favorite is the  relentless momentum of "The Cannonball Rum Theme", though it is always nice to have a plain ol' wave-rider like "Toes on the nose, Bros".

I love it when a new release slides into my hands during my radio show. Without more than 3 seconds of screening beforehand, I hit play on "North Bank of Lost River", which starts with an envigorating swell... then loud prominent vocals. It's an instrumental radio show, so I jumped a bit, but I was actually pretty durn excited about the instrumental underneath. When I got a change to listen to the entire thing, I found that the majority of the tracks were still instrumental, and a great improvement over the already quite enjoyable "Dragstrip Murder Mystery".