May Birthdays 
I recently got this CD direct from Jim Skiathitis. It's a 2011 release, and I must admit that I somehow completely missed it. But it's a great CD, and I wanted to recommend it here.
As the title implies, it's a collection tying up a lot of loose-ends. All the Atlantics '60s surf/instro material has alredy been compiled on previous releases, so this CD does not feature any of that. It basically consists of some rare material from the past 10 years, plus several tracks from the Atlantics' post-surf '60s garage/psych period.
Of the newer stuff, from the Martin-Cilla period of the band, there is the CD opener from the Morricone surf tribute "For a Few Guitars More", "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". And it's a phenomenal version, probably my favorite surf/instro cover version of that epic piece. The CD also collects all three Atlantics tracks that appeared on various Om Om Music tribute compilations: "Chantilly Lace" from American Graffiti Revisited, "Aquarius" from Hair, and "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Surferstar. All three are really excellent, with Martin Cilla on lead guitar, ripping out some country licks and bass VI on "Chantilly Lace," some blues-rock licks on "Superstar", and Marvin-esque licks on "Aquarius" (which was also covered by Hank on his debut solo album from '70, as well as the great Euro-instro band the Mustangs on their excellent "Going Doing" album from the late '90s).
There are also five previously-unreleased original tracks from the recent-period Atlantics: "Tequilla Slammer", "Cossack Beach", "One More Summer", "Ticket To Rio", and "The Crack of Noon". The first two were co-written by Martin and Jim, and feature Jim on the lead while the latter three are written by Martin alone and have him on the lead. They're songs that would have fit nicely on any of their newer albums. "Tequilla Slammer", "Ticket To Rio", "One More Summer" sound to my ears like a nice mix between '70s Shadows and more modern Scandinavian Euro-instro bands like the Mustangs or 1961. All three tracks are really fantastic, as good as the best material by those two fine Scando bands. "Crack of Noon" is fairly unique, though, a bit of a dark and moody Shadows-y melody, with some more modern melodic influences. Hard to categorize that track, I'm stumped. Finally, there's "Cossack Beach" (isn't that an interesting title! 
), which comes the closest to the classic sound of the Atlantics, with a high-tempo, rolling-tom, rapid-strummed-rhythm-guitar arrangement. The melody is excellent, too, with some great harmony guitar parts added, altogether proving beyond any doubt that Jim's still completely got it! Love this song!
Finally, there are five '60s tracks from their garage period: three with the singer Johnny Rebb on vocals ("It's a Hard Life", "I Put a Spell On You", and "Come On"), and two instros ("Flowers" and "Take a Trip"). The vocal tracks owe a huge debt to the Animals, a band which the Atlantics emulated a bit as they tried to break out of the surf box and remain relevant in the post-'65 music scene. Several of these tracks featured Theo Penglis on an electric organ, and either Theo or Jim on some seriously fuzzed-out guitar, which gave them a very authentic garage sound. To my ears, these three are as good as anything I've ever heard in the garage genre, and I think they are just phenomenal songs.
The two garage/psych instros are also beautiful, though very much of their time: "Flowers" is a mellow, moody and atmospheric track with Theo on organ and Jim playing a very simple, yet highly effective as well as gorgeous melody on a clean-sounding Strat. "Take a Trip" is pure fuzz-and-organ-heaven, the band going into full-blown psychadelic meltdown, maybe even outdoing the Yardbirds in their freak-out mode! Davie Allen's got NOTHING on this track! I think this is just an unbelievable song!!! It might work really well as a surf instro, too, would love to take a crack at that sometime.
So, overall this is an excellent comp of disparate tracks that still somehow sounds quite cohesive (the excellent mastering probably helped a lot). For any Atlantics fans, this is a must-have. It's just chock-full of great stuff! Highly recommended!
—Ivan
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Last edited: Apr 07, 2012 23:27:51
