If
Richie Allen's second album sounded kind of like it could have been done at the sessions for his debut LP, The Rising Surf, issued earlier in 1963, it's because it was kind of recorded at the same time. (One track, "Undercurrent," even appears on both discs.) Cut at various points from mid-1962 through early 1963, it likewise benefited from contributions by several top Los Angeles session cats, including guitarists Tommy Tedesco and Rene Hall; pianists Larry Knechtel and
Lincoln Mayorga; bassist Ray Pohlman; drummer
Sandy Nelson; and saxophonists
Plas Johnson and Steve Douglas. But neither the largely easygoing material (all written by Richie Podolor aka
Richie Allen) or the playing was particularly notable, though unceasingly competent. Some of the more country-oriented numbers sounded like a rough combination of surf music and cowboy Western soundtracks; others, like "Surf Man," were serviceable moody pieces that could have made good incidental music on surf documentaries (or, in the case of "Tidal Wave," a surf-cum-spy film). The album was reissued on CD with brief historical liner notes by Sundazed in 2006. ~ Richie Unterberger