This is a category for records that are either intentionally twisting surf conventions, pushing for novelty, or have moved past surf and into territory unknown. Or to put it another way, things that didn't fit neatly enough in the other categories. This is also a weird one to judge, since almost by definition these albums are pretty different from each other. Whatever. Here we go.

This interview was conducted with Volcano Kings on October 15th 2021 (I think). While it was in reaction to their album Lonesome Cybernetic Drifter on Mars (or Lo-Fi  Morricone-esque in Space), we talked about a lot of other things -- in fact this interview was cut down to 30 minutes exactly from 45 minutes of audio!

Special interview with Volcano Kings in the last half hour!

YOU CAN LISTEN!

If not here then where? This is for the bands that are close enough to surf but hard to consider amongst the rest. The weirdos. The criteria here is especially loose, basically up to my own whims, but I think they all have value to surf music as a whole.

If I’d have known that Volcano Kings were going to release three more EPs after what they already released earlier this year, I would have rationed my hyperbolic praise for them to span the next review.

Everything Volcano Kings has released has warped surf in exciting ways and done so in such an expert way that it seems like it must come easy. Despite the title, this is surf guitar before it's crime jazz and noir, but it you can find that pounding forward-moving drive of crime-jazz and some smoky mystery from a noir. But then you've got "Mechanical Beast" like some sort of steampunk wild west soundtrack and some cyberpunk electronic mayhem on "Night Life". They're all over the place, but everywhere they go is great.