Steve Waltner

Resembling the roiling rush of ocean tides rising and charging back to land, surf music combined a visceral, throttling charge of amped up reverb, frenetic, and staccato guitar leads. Unissued in its early-’60s prime, Corby Records’ main man Steve Waltner, and his comrade Denny Hardesty, cut this vital, throbbing trio of surf instros, imbued with insistent, one-note piano lines; rapid-fire, chicken-pickin’-type runs with wordless and monosyllabic unbridled screams; and exotica-adjacent, Spanish guitar-bred serenity.