I have never pertained to know anything of the Sixties Surf Culture.

My knowledge of this scene starts at The Beach Boys and ends with The Surfaris Wipeout signature tune. So it was with great trepidation when I put this album in the CD player and clicked play.

Largely made up of seven bands including surf luminaries the Music Convention, G Wayne Thomas and Farm; it’s an album that can be best described as swaying.

A majority of the songs have little or no direction and often just meander along at an acceptable rate. The first few songs by Farm and G Wayne Thomas never really heat up and your attention begins to wane before the album really gets hold of you.

It strikes to me that surf music is an acquired taste and after Ground Shuffle by the Farm, a song, which first featured on the film ‘Innermost Limits of Pure Fun’ that you seem to see the point behind the album.

Surf music was it seems an experiment in pure joy. Unadulterated happiness at the pastime, which they loved, and it served only as this. If you take this into account the experience becomes far more enjoyable. Between the Music Convention’s Sitar Track (Track 9) and G Wayne Thomas’ Song of Changes (Track 13), the album really hots up.

The two Tamam Shud songs especially (Evolution, Sea The Swells) have a real hidden gem quality to them. Songs with substance take command with actual pop choruses instead of wilting arrangements, which only serve us some sort of interlude until it reaches the end.