Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA Santiago Tamura - Return Of The Gunfighter
 | This is the second set I've received from Santiago Tamura. As before, all instruments are played by him - guitar, bass, sax, accordion, midi drums, and piano. Two of the songs are remakes from his last set. |
Picks: Return Of The Gunfighter, Turn Pike USA, Massacre Time, Yozora (Night Skies), Move It!, Zebra!, Arizona Colt, I Ciornni Dell'ira, El Toro - Spanish Eyes
Track by Track Review
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
This song is an odd blend of surf and spaghetti and Japanese melody styles. Grodie guitar and raw sax give it a reality that carries above the drum machine bed. Quite interesting!
Honkin (Instrumental)
This song is arranged much like the studio sessions of old, with manic double picked mayhem over the top. It's not melodic, but ids rather a bar honker and riff rocker. It's so unusual that it captures your attention even if you don't like jammy rockers.
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
A sort of cowboy beat runs under the dissonance of "Massacre Time." If you think spaghetti western, sax edge, and escape from a nut house, you might come to this... It's disturbing, yet magnetic.
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
"Yozora (Night Skies)" lies somewhere between the carnival and the deep blue sea. The Japanese melody is very interesting, and the surfability solid. Sorta ska, kinda surf, and pretty cool.
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
Dissonant surf guitar brings "Move It!" (not the Chantays' tune) this Ventures-like melody into a liquid jam with lots of guitar trickery and flash. Santiago Tamura conceived this to simulate an early fifties Texas rock 'n' roll radio show. Manic and way cool.
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
"Zebra!" hints of electric country, as if an eerie body double for Roy Clark or Chet Atkins was at the helm. Simply fun.
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
Swirly phased keys create a swishy bed for "Arizona Colt," which has good cactus credentials. A sad and open range kinda song with a nifty melody.
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
Italian inversions run through "I Ciornni Dell'ira" like tourists run through their dough. Surfy, continental, bouncy, and very cool. It's a very entertaining and interesting track for sure!
Japanese Spaghetti Surf (Instrumental)
You can't imagine how strange it is to transition from Link Wray's big guitar epic Link Wray's "El Toro" is softened a bit from the Linkster's original, with a sax break and disturbing uneasiness about it. When it moves into "Spanish Eyes," all seems right at the sidewalk cafe. The accordion takes the lead here. An amazingly unusual blending of songs and sounds.