Crashing along the Southern California coast, the sharp twang and rumbling percussion of ¡Ensalada! opener “Bampheus” conjures daredevil wave riders and surf culture that permeated into Sixties American iconography. There’s no reinvention of the wheel as the all-instrumental album serves straight surf rock, lying betwixt a Ventures or Surfites B-side record.
Follow-up to their 2015 debut, ¡Ensalada! sees a personnel shift in the quartet with guitarist Greg Rhoades (Golden Dawn Arkestra, Mudphonic) and bassist Ben Prentice welcoming organist/guitarist John Branch (Hardproof, Spanish Gold) and drummer Alex Marrero (Brown Sabbath) into the fold. Tracked live on analog tape, the LP snakes and grooves, ebbs and flows as each instrument holds its own. As walking basslines and in-the-pocket percussion lay the bedrock in “Tequila Derby,” wet reverb six-string drips over serpentine organ flourishes.
“Chamuko” ignites like tripwire as frenzied staccato picking and organ swirl into multicolor psychedelic pools. “Surf Juan O’Juan” opens with a bee-swarm hook that repeats with a buzz while barrell waves of high-gain guitar resound like Dick Dale. While the tom-tom maelstrom of “Fuzz Pit” all but mimics surf-rock gem “Wipeout,” “Pistolero” nods to Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western expanse, wafting Americana dust devils with moody brass bursts. ¡Ensalada! isn’t groundbreaking but offers a fun and instrumentally impressive splash into old waters.
This article appears in December 10 • 2021.