Surfing August 2016

After almost two decades of hibernation under the ambient waves and dub currents of the Sargasso Sea, LSD announces the next installment of the seminal ‘Auntie Aubrey's' series, an Orb Remix Project. This 2 x CD compilation is a veritable smorgasbord of classic, new and unreleased labour-of-love remixes that span three decades yet still transcend space and time.

There's little question that Gary Hoey is a talented guitarist, capable of spinning out dizzying solos at the drop of the hat. He has a problem making compelling records, though. His fourth proper studio album, Money – not counting no less than three holiday records and a live album – starts off on the wrong note with a horridly misguided reworking of Pink Floyd's "Money" as a post-Surfing With the Alien instrumental, complete with a wah-wah melody line. Hoey never quite abandons Joe Satriani throughout the album – he really hasn't left him behind once in his career, actually – and the combination of Satch's fluid, rounded technique with a surfer aesthetic is often quite jarring, whether it's on rockers, lite-funk numbers, or melodic album rock cuts that sound a bit like the Satriani number used in the Maxell Tape commercial.