Surf

Surf on vinyl: guitars like waves

In short: Surf emerged in Southern California in the early sixties: instrumental guitar rock with plenty of reverb and fast runs, plus songs about beach and summer in close harmony. The sound travelled the world – as far as Canada, Morocco, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Vinyl Room currently has 17 surf records.

What is surf?

Reverb, tremolo and speed: The Beach Boys stand for vocal surf – here with “The Best Of The Beach Boys Vol. 2”. On “Bongo Rock” The Incredible Bongo Band turned the guitar instrumental “Apache” into a percussion piece that was later sampled a lot in hip-hop.

How far the sound went is shown by Les Jaguars from Canada, Les Jaguars de Casablanca from Morocco, the Danish band The Good The Bad with “From 001 To 017” and YĪN YĪN from the Netherlands with “The Age Of Aquarius”.

What to look for

Many surf classics came out on singles and were collected later; label, catalogue number and year of release help you tell which edition you have – it’s noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

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FAQ

Where does surf music come from? From Southern California, in the early sixties.

What makes the surf sound? Guitars with plenty of reverb, fast runs and – in vocal surf – close harmony singing.

Is there surf outside the US? Yes – here, for example, from Canada, Morocco, Denmark and the Netherlands.

What does surf have to do with hip-hop? The Incredible Bongo Band recorded “Apache”, a track that later became one of the best-known hip-hop samples.