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:: Out of Limits ::

:: Hyper-Space ::

:: Saturn ::

It’s reasonable to say that America went surf crazy in the early sixties, and The Marketts (lit. trans. “Sea-ketts”) were a good part of that madness by charting some instrumental surf-pop. The original band was formed by main songwriter and guitarist Mike Gordon in 1960, who took what became their first hit single, “Surfer’s Stomp,” to producer Joe Sarceno. Sarceno didn’t think they were good enough to record, so he rebuilt the band into a rotating line-up of L.A. studio musicians who continued to record all the way through to 1977 (Gordon, the only mainstay, left in 1966). See an earlier Robot post from their extra-hip Disco period here.


Here be some selections from their fourth LP, which left the beach themes behind and devoted itself entirely to space and sci-fi TV - and spawned their biggest hit, the twangy “Out of Limits.” The arrangements on this record aren’t exactly surf-rock – with all the horns, organs, piano tinkling and even theremin wails, there’s more of a space-age, easy listening lounge vibe going on here. And that’s far out. Blast off, dude!


Phil

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