LIVING WATER, the Surfer's Mass

One of the charms of surf music has always been its unpretentiousness: it is simple, stirring rock music devoted to the joys of surfing. In that sense, combining it with religious dogma seems a stretch, but that's what veteran musicians John Zambetti and Walter Egan have done on Living Water (The Surfer's Mass). The album is exactly what it says it is, a combination of the prayers said in Latin in a Catholic Mass with surf music, so that the Malibooz sing, "Kyrie Eleison" with Beach Boys-like harmonies over Dick Dale-style guitar, and follow with "Gloria" at a ballad tempo that suggests "Surfer Girl." Much of the time, the album is reminiscent not so much of early surf music as of later evolutions of it, especially the Beach Boys' 1971 album Surf's Up, that is, if you can imagine that album containing a song called "Lamb of God." No doubt seriously intended, Living Water (The Surfer's Mass) nevertheless has an "only in California" quirkiness to it that many listeners may find more humorous than inspiring. But maybe it will lead to the creation of a new musical genre: Christian Surf Music; at very least, it gives new meaning to the phrase, "Pray for surf."