Strictly Instrumental CD

Buffalo Bop may occasionally slip some uneven rock & roll songs into its other collections, but when it comes to Strictly Instrumental, they've come up with 30 solid tracks, running the gamut of influences from country/rockabilly (the Big Four) and blues (Rex Qual) to Chuck Berry licks (Howie & the Crystals, the Sensations) and surf (the Ree-Gents). Not all of the bands present have distinctive characters, although a few are more accomplished than the others -- "Ce'NY" by Jerry and the Silvertones, "Rockin' Hall" by Howie & the Crystals, "Workout" by the Journeymen (whose drummer sounds like Keith Moon on speed), and "Devil's Run" by Herb Kliebe's Nervous Kats show off players who obviously put in time and effort, and had the talent to make it show on record, and Rex Qual's "Tranquilizer Boogie" is distinctive as a blues-based instrumental in the midst of these surf and rock & roll sounds. The Eltro-Tones ("Ghost Train"), despite their name, are a country outfit with a heavy reliance on steel guitar, and are also among the truth virtuoso groups in this collection. Some of the bands rely on sax as much as guitar, but the axe is the main instrument on 85% of this collection. Strictly speaking, a few aren't really instrumentals -- "Bandstand Rocket" by the Twisters and "Chicken Rock" by Scott Wood certainly have voices, even if all they're doing is providing non-descript choruses. Most of these bands probably never to play much beyond the counties in which they went to school and got together, and these singles are as close to immortality as most of them ever got. Still, they rose to the occasion, turning out two minutes each of generally exciting, often bracing instrumental flash. ~ Bruce Eder

30 tracks feat. The Big Four, Ree-Gents, Twisters, Reekers, Sting Rays, Teen Rockers, Silvertones, Scott Wood, Electro-Tones, Rockaways, Rocktones, Night Trains, Big Four +