''Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain, Volume 1'' is a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

featuring underground

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicl ...

and

surf rock Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

musical artists east of the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...

that were recorded between 1963 and 1966. It is the first installment of the ''Planetary Pebbles'' series, which was a sub-series to the ''Pebbles'' series, and was released on

AIP Records AIP Records is a record label that was started by Greg Shaw's Bomp! Records in 1983 to continue the Pebbles series. AIP stands for "Archive International Productions". The first 10 volumes in the Pebbles series had been released by BFD Reco ...

, on August 12, 1997 (''see''

1997 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1997. Specific locations * 1997 in British music * 1997 in Norwegian music * 1997 in South Korean music Specific genres * 1997 in classical music *1997 in country music * 19 ...

). Considering the

Eastern European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and ...

bands represented had little opportunity to record, the tracks are primitive in comparison to their Western contemporaries. Nonetheless, the album includes arguably among the rarest material available in the ''Pebbles'' series extensive catalog. Musical highlights include surf rock-inspired instrumentals by

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

T. Terauchi, the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

Die Sputniks, and the

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Sincron. Other acts also resided in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, with the Slava Kunst Orchestra contributing the most abnormal assortment of nonsensical lyrics, wedding band-like instrumentals, and berserk tempo on "Lucifer In Coelis". The album claims to feature strictly groups from the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

, but in actuality 11 of the 24 tracks were recorded by

Western European Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

bands and a Japanese band. ''Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain, Volume 1'' was released on both

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

and

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

Track listing

#Sincron: "Pe Linga Plopii Fara Sot Leader" #Capras: "Beginning of Autumn" #T. Terauchi and the Bunnys: "Theme from Unfinished Symphony" #Niebiesko-Czarni: "Komandosi" #The Eliminators: "The Saint" #Mefistos: "Return of Gemini" #Die Sputniks: "Sputniks Thema" #Thunderbirds: "African Guitars Leader" #Niebiesko-Czarni: "Nocny Alarm #The Boomerangs: "Crazy Guitars" #Trocadero Sextett: "Leicht Verdreht" #Orchester Charles Blackwell: "The Bumble Beat" #Klaus Lenz Sextett: "Corso" #Slava Kunst Orchestra: "Lucifer In Coelis" #Thunderbirds: "Twistin Safari" #Theo Schumann Combo: "Aladin" #Niebiesko-Czarni: "Take Blya Moja" #Sincron: "In Gara La Leordeni" #Gisha Brothers: "Wewo's Rock" #The Constellations: "Colorado" #Javalins: "Javalins Rock" #Franke Echo Quintett: "Melodie Für Barbara" #Eliminators: "Wipe Out!" #Karel Duba and His Guitar Men: "The Coach"

References

{{Reflist 1997 compilation albums Pebbles (series) albums