Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA  | If Iron Butterfly had lasted long enough to return to guitarist Danny Weiss' surf roots and his use of the reverb tank and damped wet picking for effect, and they had rediscovered the angst of punk, they might have sounded something like Cosmogringos. Quite interesting and refreshing. |
Picks: Allarme!, Attacco al Pianeta Teta, Atterraggio di Fortuna Sull'asteroide Beta, Panda Hero, Vampyro, Onda Anomala, 6:45, Panna, Solazzo Sul Sofa, Insequito da Cagne, Cavalcata Stellare, Serfone, La Pigra, La Pigra (remix)
Track by Track Review
Surf (Instrumental)
"Allarme!" is played with all the urgency alarms and sirens are intended to convey. What starts out as riff rock evolves into a double picked siren emergency. Imminent attack is felt throughout the track.
Surf (Instrumental)
A kinda spacy surf guitar under a fuzzy anger opens a nasty grumpy progression based track. While not melodic, it is dark and dangerous in a futurist post nuclear kinda way.
Atterraggio di Fortuna Sull'asteroide Beta 
Surf (Instrumental)
Sad whammy chords and dark reverbed filligres open a moody surf epic of dangerous monster walls. Like Iron Butterfly's Iron Butterfly, the guitarist uses damped wet picking for space effect, much like a darkened "Third Star To The Left" (Nocturnes).
Surf (Instrumental)
"Panda Hero" is bright and melodic, with double picked high register guitar lines and a playful melody. Lots of optimism and a unique and infectious melody relentlessly take you on an adventure along the sun coast where the water sparkles to your right as you head down to Baja. Great track!
Surf (Instrumental)
Satan's Pilgrims' "Vampiro" gets all damp-plucked for an eerie treatment. Sorta Bat Man-ish. Not much of a melody and not much direction.
Surf (Instrumental)
Grumbly bass slowly introduces whammy chords and and moody island guitar lines. The undertone of sadness and the gaurded optimism of the gentle breeze delivery create a new day dawning vision of long green lines on the horizon. Very nice track.
Surf (Instrumental)
"6:45" is a bouncy number with a sense of afternoon surf adventure in a Mexican fishing village. It can't be a morning song 'cuz there's just no sense of a yawning dawn. Infectious energy and agua plenty. Nice track.
Surf (Instrumental)
Delicate fluff for an afternoon in a lawn chair watching the seascape filtered through a cervesa or two. Relaxing, while not being slow at all.
Surf (Instrumental)
The Sofa Don holds court over his minions from his seated view of the coast as the sun brings calm to his underworld. There's a bit of the Godfather and racing surf about "Solazzo Sul Sofa," and some tasteful arranging and writing.
Surf (Instrumental)
This reminds me of a gutteral and more circular and riffy variation on "Ali Baba" (Dave and the Customs), with less melody and more garage edge. Almost dark, with glissandos and a thick wall of swirling storm surf. Can't help but dig the groove of this cool track.
Surf (Instrumental)
Soft almost Italian double picked solo guitar launches "Cavalcata Stellare" to a long slow misty look at the night sky. But wait, there's more! A few bars in, it becomes a circular bright faced splash of surf and space adventure. Excellent.
Surf (Instrumental)
Disturbed whammy and fast angular double picked melody lines fly off the glissandoed guitar. Hectic and dramatic.
Surf (Instrumental)
"La Pigra" sports a haunting Iron Butterfly riding the waves around Aldeberan sound as the long slow decent of the opening glissando falls through an entire verse. Mysterious, with mid tempo moodiness and drama.
Surf (Instrumental)
This remix is more a complete rearrangement at seven and a half minutes. It is much more haunting and distant, more lounge space with Morse code percussion and an eerie sense of forbidden outlands. Interesting.