Los Venturas "Kaleydoskop" 2011

“Album title Kaleydoskop refers “to the multitude of influences and sounds that you can find in the songs”, and the track titles also indicate that: Transsibirskaya Magistral has a different connotation than, say, Surfer Stomp...
...Opener Venturas' Groove typifies the LP: a, er, groovy improvisation to a melody of esoteric guitar sounds with light wah wah. The second track, one of only three covers here, also follows that line: Tommy Roe's Dizzy, aka bubblegum psychedelia from 1969 when the rocking Sheila of 1962 preached love and peace with flowers in her hair. A number of tracks still contain surf melodies, but also hop depup ska, bongo-like drums, funky bass guitar and lots of percussion and guitar effects. A sax joins in on a track or three. Ganja Party is obviously very laid back, 04:52 Uhr Reeperbahn St-Pauli contains dialogue and moan samples from what seems to me an old German porn movie, Revenge Of The Tiki's Part II is their own Taboo. Cinematically I would not call the Venturas sound, but the other two covers are definitely from movies: Lawrence Of Arabia is the Maurice Jarre theme from the 1962 spectacle film of the same name, Bubamara (from the Yugoslav comedy Black Cat White Cat from 1998) combines ska with Eastern European influences but is still fun because of the high kasachok content. Whether the own song Zot Van A has anything to do with last year's Flemish film of the same name is unknown to me. You have to be a bit in the mood for it, but for those who like surf more than just Misirlou, this is quite a pleasant record that opens the boundaries of the surf genre towards psychedelic improvisation. See in that regard also the length of the songs: 52 minutes is quite long for 14 tracks. Venturas' Groove would have been just as good a CD title as Kaleydoskop, because atmosphere triumphs over speed, melody over misplaced machismo. References: The Ventures In The Vaults, The Halibuts, and Austin Powers. It's shagadelic, baby!” --- Reviewed by Frantic Franky (Boppin’ Around)
trax:
01 Venturas Groove 02 Dizzy 03 Zot Van A 05 Revenge Of Tiki's Pt. II 06 Bubamara 07 Ganja Party 08 04:52 Uhr Reeperbahn, St-Pauli 09 Pumpin' 10 Transsibirskaya Magistral 11 Lawrence of Arabia