The Surfing Magazines - Badgers of Wymeswold (Moshi Moshi Records, 2021)
The Surfing Magazines’ primary influences are Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and all the great surf guitar music of the 1960s. Their second studio album “Badgers of Wymeswold” is in this spirit.
The Surfing Magazines are a new garage-rock group consisting of two thirds of The Wave Pictures and one half of Slow Club.
They burst onto the scene with their eponymous debut album in 2017, a lauded LP described by Record Collector Mag as “a vintage-yet-modern rock’n’roll classic”.
Mixing the noir surf textures of 1960s garage rock along with westcoast sun beaten harmony pop, the 16-track Badgers of Wymeswold follows the acclaimed debut.
The London based foursome recorded the album at Ranscomb Studio in Rochester in February last year before the start of the first UK lockdown.
Pushing their sound forward, the band utilise their garage rock ethic and have both Drummer Dominic Brider and Rhythm guitar player Charles Watson lead on vocals across multiple tracks. The album sees a return of free form saxophone parts, eerie violins and piano all appear, notably on tracks ‘Nostaw Boogie’ and ‘I’m Going Out Tonight To Play Some Pool’.
The title track is drawn from David Tattersall’s nightmare vision about his home town’s population of self governing people, the album artwork was also made by Tattersall and depicts a collage of his referenced dreams.
The extensive LP showcases their characteristic sound at their brightest, from softer ballads such as ‘Poppies’ and ‘Silver Breasts’, surf guitar rock anthem ‘Locomotive Cheer’, and to the six bar blues ‘Pink Ice Cream’.
NMR (photo: press The Surfing Magazines)
