Ventures 1

As one of the foremost instrumental surf rock bands of their day, the Ventures produced what seemed like endless collections of standard tunes in their unique beachy style. Originally released in 1963, The Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull is one of the band's more recognizable titles. Covering a vast array of early-'60s hit paraders, the album is kicked off by a rival surf band's huge hit. "Telstar" was a hit earlier that same year in a much wobblier Joe Meek-produced version by interstellar outliers the Tornados. Taking on a few Latin-tinged easy listening numbers made famous by Herb Alpert as well as Booker T. & the MG's' soul groover "Green Onions," the record hits these numbers with a varied degree of inspiration. Despite a somewhat wooden performance on many of the tracks, the hard-panned stereo production makes for a very big sound…

American rock ‘n’ roll icon The Ventures return with the first all-new studio album in 24 years! With the fresh New Space LP they seek to echo and pay homage to 1964’s (The) Ventures In Space, one of their biggest-selling and most popular albums of all time. Although with a different line-up than sixty years ago, Bob Spalding (lead guitar), Ian Spalding (rhythm guitar), Luke Griffin (bass) and Leon Taylor (drums) succeed well in similarly merging instrumental surf pop and space rock into twelve fascinating cinematic pieces. Melodic originals and fitting covers – Fly Me to the Moon (written by Bart Howard, popularized by Frank Sinatra) and Vibrations and Eleventh Hour (by the founders of The Ventures) – make this a welcome return.