There was a time, around the mid-nineties, when I was
particularly enamoured of surf music.
Enamoured is putting it mildly, actually. I was often seen emerging from independent
records shops in various parts of the midlands and north-west of England with
teetering piles of vinyl threatening to obscure the path in front of me as I
ventured precariously into the traffic.
It was a bad habit to acquire because, too late, I realised
that I’d got to the stage of buying things I didn’t actually like very
much. Belatedly, I eschewed my
profligate ways, returned to the more varied musical diet that was my natural
inclination and became, I admit, something of a surf music sceptic. Whilst the likes of Man…or Astroman continued
to form an important part of my listening experience, I grew wary of venturing
too far into the surf waters lest I once again be indiscriminately consumed by
whatever lay out there.
The consequence of this is that nowadays a surf band has to
be pretty damn special to attract my attention.
Molokai are one such band.
Emerging not from southern California but from Bitola, Macedonia,
they’ve released their second album despite all being a mere nineteen years of
age. It comes via their own Predisposed
To Oppose label and it’s the best bit of surf guitar to assault my lugholes in
many a long year.
Titles like ‘Creepy Heap From The Deep’ ought to grab your
attention anyway and even born again surf cynics like me can acknowledge that
what lays behind such surface charms more than delivers on its initial
promise. Molokai have exactly what a
really top drawer instrumental surf band needs: a rhythm section keeping it
tight and steady while the guitars let rip to deliver riffs that manage to stay
faithful to the idiom yet – and this is what sets them apart – sound like
nothing like anything other worthy practitioners of the art like M…oA, Sir Bald
Diddley or the Tiki-Men ever unleashed on the world.
Thus, I can confidently play a track like ‘John Travolta in
the Castle Revolta’ in my Dandelion Radio show this month secure in the
knowledge that I’m not only doing it because I like saying the title. If you want to hear more, and I suggest you
do, find it at http://molokaiau.bandcamp.com. Disturbingly, the fact they've put (2011-14) on there suggests this might be the end of their short existence - let's hope not.
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