January Birthdays 
The Breakers – A Seahorse of a Different Color CD (Sharawaji Records)
The fourth CD (and third with Sharawaji) from this Chicago-area act is a wild trip through the sand and the sea. It’s not every day that you are fortunate enough to encounter surf music that also tastefully incorporates a myriad of supplemental instruments. When surf bands venture outside of the musical ‘mirepoix’ (guitar, bass, drums), it’s common to incorporate a keyboard and possibly a wind instrument like a saxophone or trumpet. The Breakers use those, no doubt. However, on this recording, you will hear an auxiliary instrument that may have made is first-time-ever-on-a-surf-music-record appearance: the Aztec death whistle. Bizarre, right? To push the boundaries even farther, the classic, “Pipeline” has been reimagined with the addition of bagpipes in, “BagPipeline.”
If a more straightforward approach to surf waxes your board, tracks like “Escaping Through the Window,” “A Seahorse of a Different Color,” “Seamhead,” and “MoonBase Alert” will have you ready to hit the waves. The speedy, “Sharks in the Streets” is there for those of us who like the power and intensity of precision picking.
What I find most amazing, and what makes this record so unique and appealing is that it sounds like the ocean. All the various instruments and the ways in which they are played coalesce into the sounds of the sea to the delight of my imagination. There are eighteen psychedelic, surf prog tunes with a mammoth 56-minute runtime on this CD. The disc dwells in a gatefold sleeve with a plastic tray. The wrap-around artwork is colorful and ties in nicely with the ethos of the band and vibe of the album. Pick up a copy if you can brave these eccentric waters.
Available at The Breakers Bandcamp or Sharawaji
As reviewed in Colorado Instrumental Fanzine Issue 2
—Matthew
Purchasae Colorado Instrumental Fanzine Issue 3
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Last edited: Aug 18, 2024 12:02:21
