Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA Alan Jenkins and the Thurston Lava Tube - Free Surf Music #1
 | Here we have one of the more hybridized releases of the year. Two horns bringing an avant-garde sense to surf influenced rock instro foundations. Guitarist Alan Jenkins is supported by Blodwyn P. Teabag - organ, Kate Halliday and Adrian Hallet - tenor sax, Marshall Cavendish - bass, and Aaron Moore - drums. Together, they make utterly original noises for the post surf millennium. |
Picks: Freak Saturn Tattoo, Pour Quoi Pas Moo, Hairy Japanese Bastards, Gargling With Shelves, Bees, Free Surf Music #1, Tell Out My Soul, Plague Of Cows, Pies, Pies, The Sky Is All Pies, Chewing Gum For The Spine, The Machine's Just Set Up For Poisonous Foam, Lumpy Gravy, Frequent Moderate Violence, A Murder, A Mass Murderer And A Man In A Bri-Nylon Shirt
Track by Track Review
Whirly Electro Melange (Instrumental)
This is a 17 second introduction to a most unusual album. It's a whirly electro melange.
Surf (Instrumental)
"Pour Quoi Pas Moo" is an unusual instrumental, with a surf foundation and a tribal beat, plus a fine melody line. Both solid and infectious, it captures a strange kinda surf on a floaty day.
Seventies Funk Orient (Instrumental)
What do you say about this? The great title... The seventies funk orient feel, and a melody that is like an extraction of a prelude to "Perfidia." "Hairy Japanese Bastards" plays with genre and sounds... pretty darn cool.
Disturbing (Instrumental)
Like the title says... The horn players go on a rampage at Disneyland, showing no mercy.
Guitar Sax Duet (Instrumental)
Repeated sample citing "bees" provides part of the rhythm under a guitar-sax duet with a curious disturbed surfability... like maybe if Captain Beefheart went surfing with Frank Zappa and Creed Taylor.
Soft Squonk Jazz Noodles And Psychedelic Weirdness (Instrumental)
Soft squonk jazz, noodles and psychedelic weirdness, enhanced with theremin. "Free Surf Music #1" is many blocks from surf or melody, yet attracts from shear dissonance. Most strange, and at almost 8 minutes, it's quite an endurance test. Part two is a bluesy tuning exercise or jazz composition... either way, the theremin and the uncomfortable structure test and disturb. A little like early Hawkwind / Amon Duul II from an after hours acid test point of view, "Tell Out My Soul" does indeed get to the root of things lurking where you don't want to go.
Guitar Sax Organ (Instrumental)
This guitar-organ track with stinging whammy and an interesting melody line. It's not really surfy, yet there's a sense of interlude from the tubes without really leaving the envelope. Interesting track.
Devolving (Instrumental)
It starts out like a real song, devolves into a weird structure, then disintegrates into bits and pieces.
Pies, Pies, The Sky Is All Pies Nightmare At The Cove (Instrumental)
With a wink and a nod to Amon Duul II's "Chewing Gum Telegraph," "Chewing Gum For The Spine" develops into a jazzy horn driven guitar floored number with a funky dissonance, like a nightmare at the cove with glissandoes.
Chewing Gum For The Spine Cassio (Instrumental)
Casio percussion at twelve paces... repetition for repetition's sake. Interesting in an old video game sense.
The Machine's Just Set Up For Poisonous Foam Elector Sounds (Instrumental)
Brief howling elector sounds... for all of 20 seconds.
Nightmare At The Cove (Instrumental)
Frank Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy" develops into a jazzy horn driven guitar floored number with a funky dissonance, like a nightmare at the cove with glissandoes. This is different that the original and the Ten Foot Faces' cover of the late eighties.
Frequent Moderate Violence Sub-exotica Post Surf Water Music (Instrumental)
What seems like programmed percussion supports a fine guitar number with squonking sax. The melody is fluid and blue, while the textures and percussion add up to sub-exotica post surf water music.
A Murder, A Mass Murderer And A Man In A Bri-Nylon Shirt Sludge Surf (Instrumental)
Sludge-slow, almost plodding, dark and brooding guitar with watery electro weirdness. This composition drifts like Godzilla in a polluted bay, dodging floaters and sinkers alike. You can easily envision a dismal end to an unsuspecting longboarder at the hands of a schizoid shark drugged down on Quaaludes. It's the shimmering vibrato guitar that keeps the surf theme.