THE HYDROMATICS

List of bands that originally played this music

The Beach Boys
Dick Dale and the Del-Tones
The Lively Ones
The Surfaris
The Tornadoes
The Ventures
The Shadows
The Chantays
The Astronauts
The Atlantics

History of surf music

Surf Rock was one of the most popular forms of American rock & roll of the early '60s. Distinguished by reverb-drenched guitar and simple, three-chord songs, the music may sound similar on the surface, but it was revolutionary music for its time, exploring sonic territories previously unheard in rock music.

Dick Dale and his single “Let's Go Trippin” kicked off the first wave of surf rock. The single was a local hit in California, but it inspired countless bands to form — groups like the Chantays and The Surfaris, who had national hits ("Pipeline" and "Wipe Out," respectively). Others include The Lively Ones, The Tornadoes, The Ventures, The Shadows, The Astronauts & The Atlantics.

Surf music incorporates a wide spectrum of elements such as rockabilly, R&B, cowboy, spy, country & western, jazz, flamenco, Mexican, Latin and Middle Eastern music.

Instrumental surf music is quite different from vocal surf music, performed by such groups as Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys, that sings about surfing. Where vocal surf bands sing about surfing, instrumental surf bands instrumentally create the sensation of actually surfing. Vocal surf music deals mainly with the lifestyle associated with the surf scene - while instrumental surf music is about the raw experience of confronting the elements.

Hydromatics perform both instrumental surf music and a long list of the classic vocal surf music numbers in beautiful harmony.

Interesting facts

Dick Dale was not only the inventor of surf rock, he also set new standards with his guitar style such as that Leo Fender asked him to test some new amplifier prototypes (if they could survive dick's way of playing they could survive anything). Dick compared his way of playing to the sensation you get on a surfboard, cruising the waves. Since then, the term "surf" no longer applies to the sport alone but to a music style as well.

Dick Dale was the first to use a prototype of the guitar reverb unit developed by The Fender Music Company. The reverb unit provides the wet echo that is a major component of the surf sound. Before this development, guitarists like Duane Eddy combined the whammy bar and tremolo effects with natural reverb created by means of an empty water tank. An early form of raw primitive distortion was created by pushing pencils into the cone of speakers.

In the Mid '80's a revival started out and ever since Quentin Tarantino used Dick Dale's Misirlou in Pulp Fiction's score. Surf is definitely back. Nowadays there are new surf bands such as The MerMen, Man or Astroman, The Aqua Velvets and many others.

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