a r t i s t : Farm
t i t l e : The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : EM (EM1066CD)
g e n r e : Soundtrack
r l s. d a t e : Jul/2007
t r a c k s : 13
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 69,5 MB
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CD-EXTRA (enhanced CD) feat. movie of a interview by the
original members (QuickTime movie)
Digitally remastered by Dennis Dragon
Cardboard special CD case with booklet
English/Japanese texts
Rare photos
Original jkt cover art
FEATURED ON BOOKLET;
Liner notes written by:
Denny Aaberg & Dennis Dragon
The Denny Aaberg Interview by Stephen J. McParland
Legendary independent soundtrack recording to the classic 1968
surf movie "THE INNERMOST LIMITS OF PURE FUN", directed by
George Greenough. The soundtrack was written, performed &
produced by American surfer group FARM.
FARM's lead guitarist Denny Aaberg was a keen surfer and later
became a well known surf writer; the movie "BIG
WEDNESDAY"(1978) is based on his novel about his surfing
youth. Other members of FARM include bassist Phill Pritchard,
guitarist Ernie Knapp, both of whom played with the Beach Boys
in the 1980s-90s, and the Dragon brothers Doug and Dennis
(organ and drums respectively on this soundtrack). Dennis also
has a Beach Boys link, having done sound work for them. Dennis
became a busy surf soundtrack producer in 1970s, did some
early work with Van Halen, and was a member of the Surf Punks.
An additional musician on this soundtrack is Daryl Dragon
(Captain in "Captain & Tennille"), who collaborated with
Dennis Wilson. Daryl & Dennis Dragon produced about 30 albums
in their Malibu studio.
This album is the only release from this historical surfer
quintet.
The movie is very well-known and brought an epoch-making
"street" style to surf films for the next decades, and is
still a long-time favorite of many people. The fine soundtrack
performances by FARM helped to promote the street-wise feeling
of the film. No Annette, no Jan & Dean, no beach party
anymore. People agreed the soundtrack, jazz, blues &
psychedelia based, was totally tremendous and birthed a new
surf style. The trippy & imaginative sounds go well with the
atmosphere of the Greenough film.
The soundtrack has a strong reputation based on the reaction
of viewers. However, despite the word-of- mouth fame, the
existance of the original soundtrack album was known only to
serious record collectors or surfers, as it was released
privately (the original LP has no label credit or address),
with only 1000 copies pressed. Distribution was limited to the
US west coast, mainly surf shops, with some mail-order
distribution. The album was illegally issued (with a different
cover) in the early 1970s in Australia.
Though Greenough is well-known for his superb underwater
camera work on BIG WEDNESDAY and his later surf classic
CRYSTAL VOYAGER, THE INNERMOST LIMITS OF PURE FUN is the
origin of his work.
"......the unusual musical chemistry became evident upon our
first jam. Denny's camp was blues oriented. We Dragon boys
came from jazz. Some of our influences were Les McCann, Martin
Denny, Mose Allison, The Jazz Crusaders, Oscar Peterson and I
liked most of the bebop artists on the Blue Note record label.
What a combination! ....We started to work out the
arrangements of the songs that Denny wanted to record and it
became evident to me that we were doing something very
musically unique at the time. Denny came up with the band name
FARM based on the diversity of musical styles coming together.
To him, this represented the different crops growing in the
same field. Trippy!" (from the notes by Dennis Dragon)
http://www.emrecords.net/records/00081.html
from aquariusrecords.org
Ah, yes it's summertime! Warm sunshine and trips to the beach!
And what's more summery than surf music? Lo and behold, our
favorite label for obscure and amazing reissues, Japan's EM
Records, has a special new series of five, count 'em, five
reissues devoted to lost "surf" music treasures. The first
two, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, are out now, with the
others to follow in short order. We're pretty sure all of 'em
are awesome.
And if you're familiar with the eccentricity of this label,
you'll know that this "EM Under Water" series isn't going to
be about, y'know, "regular" surf music of the Jan & Dean or
Ventures variety, nope. These first two releases are both
soundtracks to rad '70s surfing movies, and are fully
psychedelic, with tripped out grooves, synth experiments, and
heavy rock jamming all part of the mix.
This one's really fantastic. The music for the legendary 1970
Australian surf documentary The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun
was done by a hippy band called Farm from Santa Barbara who
themselves were part of the SoCal surf scene. Their lead
guitarist, Denny Aaberg, even wrote a novel about his surfing
days called Big Wednesday that was eventually made into movie
starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey! Other members
later on played with such bands as the Surf Punks in the '80s
and the Beach Boys in the '90s... and weirder still, The
Captain from Captain and Tennille is on here somewhere too.
But this is like none of that, needless to say. Farm's sound
was more of a special surf/soundtrack/psych hybrid...
There's plenty of glorious mellow jazzy groovers on here, with
organ that reminds us a bit of Bo Hansson's stuff, as well
tracks like the heavy electric blues of "Zan Ho Zay" and the
gorgeous folky acoustic guitar intricacy of "Innerspace".
Mostly instrumental, but for two charming vocal cuts, "Crumple
Car" and "The Eater", this is surf-psych at its peak for sure.
A lot of the record was constructed around live jams,
including the soundtrack's finale, the 13 minute improv
"Coming Of The Dawn", a track Farm recorded in real-time
response to a projection of the film's most awe-inspiring
"inside the pipe" sequence. The filmmaker had rigged up a
waterproof camera contraption that he was able to strap to his
back and use to shoot while riding his board, one of the
innovative techniques that made it a groundbreaking surf
movie. This soundtrack had to help too!
This reish, done in the usual thorough EM style, is packaged
in a nice gatefold sleeve with a thick, fully illustrated
booklet in English and Japanese and other bits of ephemera
tipped in, and includes a QuickTime video clip on the cd of an
interview with the band. As well, both this and also the
soundtrack to Drouyn include liner notes by Aussie surf music
expert Stephen J. McPharland (author of Waltzing The Plank:
The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Australian Surf Music 1963-
2003).s
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01-Crystal Shingles [02:24]
02-Animal [05:31]
03-Wind n Sea [02:34]
04-Crumple Car [02:04]
05-Tobie's Oats [01:23]
06-San Ho Zay [03:46]
07-Snake Charmer [05:54]
08-The Eater [01:29]
09-The Cruzer [02:06]
10-Ground Shuffle [03:13]
11-Innerspace [02:28]
12-Outeriff [02:54]
13-Coming of the Dawn [13:13]
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48:59 min