Blasted Surf and Apache Rock videos

Blasted Surf – intense splashy surf instrumental, demanding stamina and speed. Lead guitar Conrad of Insanitizers, with bass guitar and percussion previously recorded. Just one guitar but often sounds like two. The guitar is a combination of two 1967 Japanese guitars, 24-3/4″ scale. Its two pickups have separate volume controls. Here bridge pickup is fully on, and neck pickup is just enough to smooth tonal edges. Original song, c. Conrad Swartz 2023 (BMI).

Apache Rock, extending the twangy percussive guitar approach of Jorgen Ingmann’s original recording by adding twangy percussive embellishments. Conrad performs with bass and percussion previously recorded. Here both bridge and neck pickups are fully on, for mellow yet chimey tone. Original arrangement by Insanitizers.

Insane Knot Tie Soars

That’s two things besides an unrealistic sentence. As a pun on Insanitizers it emphasizes that a local impresario calls us INSANE-a-tizers. It is also the name of our new Amazing Album. It is available as a physical commercially duplicated CD album or a digital download album, at Insanitizers.Bandcamp.com, Insanitizers.com, Amazon etc., and streaming on all platforms on Feb. 8, 2023. Every track is a new recording and will energize you to success.

This photo represents the album. An adaptation of it is printed on the disc.

Here is the track listing with our comments.

01 Bold Renegade. Reflecting its Zorroistic theme, “this bold renegade carves a Z with his bladeā€¦” it starts and ends with triple slashes. During the bridge section are guitar whip lashes you may need headphones to hear, no muscle strain involved.

02 Dazzled. Motivated by big band classic “Big Noise from Winnetka” but its melodies are not similar. What is similar is unusually expressionistic percussion. For part of this song the melody (lead) is carried by a growling funky twangy guitar in the bass range.

03 Twang Shake The entire melody is played on one mysterious extra-twangy guitar. Twangs are measured in units of Eddies, one twang is one Eddy, two twangs is Twain Eddies.

04 Waterfall Barreling Splashy surf, over the falls in a barrel, overarched by a psychedelic bridge

05 Dark Eyes. A classic Russian folk song. The literal translation of the name from Russian is “Black Eyes” but here it’s all mystery, no trauma. Our energetically rocking version has no overlap with the Welkish arrangement of this song by The Ventures.

06 The Lost Rescue. Surf guitar original with a Mendelssohnian feel. Yup, that’s spelled right.

07 Dance Like a Robot. Features up-and-down glissando slides. Fun mechanoid metal man, not metal music. Think Kryten from Red Dwarf.

08 A Day in Tokyo. As intended, it sounds Japanese but we don’t know why it does, it just does. Beautiful echo tones.

09 A Night in Vienna. Polka, March, and Surf take turns on an Austrian carousel. Vienna is supposed to be a hotbed of espionage and carousels. A hotbed of carousels?

10 The Space Force. The actual Space Force only wishes it had as magnificent a theme.

11 Jaws on Bald Mountain. Beyond Bald Mountain, tied onto the back of a horse, in the middle of the night, clothesless (please note the discretion).

12 Love in Purgatory. Heart-tugging melody introduced by harpsichord and continued on gorgeous guitar tones.

13 GooglEyes. Jolly and bouncy. Yes you’re feeling lucky today.

14 Rocket Pack. Beyond Telstar.

15 Stunt Pilot. Beyond Ghost Riders

16 Waterboard. Beyond sanity.

Something special in our new recording “Satumaa”

The expressiveness and tones in our new recording of “Satumaa,” the national tango of Finland, befits the title. “Satumaa” means wonderland. The song is a classic in Finland, and it appeared as a vocal (in Finnish) in 1955. If you aren’t familiar with the Finnish language you can still understand the beauty of this song with our instrumental version. You can hear it on Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, or Tidal, and paid subscriptions are not necessary at least for some of these. Links to the song on Spotify, Deezer and Pandora are below…

Spotify

Deezer

https://www.deezer.com/us/album/343189937

Pandora
https://www.pandora.com/artist/insanitizers/satumaa-single/AL3XqfnVJxpdjjm

Insanitizers Guitar

No other guitar looks, sounds or plays like it. It has 5 separate pickups including a splittable humbucker at the bridge. With the bridge pickup split it combines gorgeously with the other pickups one at a time. Made by Conrad, it says Insanitizers.

wild variations on classics

Conrad writes: I performed these on the most inexpensive strat-type guitar I know of. Before doing this I leveled the frets, thinned the neck, replaced bridge & middle pickups, added weights to the internal vibrato bar, installed roller saddles, and adjusted intonation. This allowed a a string height of less than 1/16″ above the 12th fret, necessary for these two rapidly paced interpretations.

The upper one uses the middle pickup throughout. The lower one uses the middle pickup for the first half of the song, and the neck pickup for the last half.

“Space Force” album review from Pipeline Magazine

issue #117 (Winter 2020)

The album is aptly titled indeed as these space-flavored instrumentals are delivered with great intensity featuring busy upfront guitar work dominating the soundstage throughout. Following in the footsteps of the racy title track the first five numbers are all uptempo pieces full of space/spooky fire and energy. Not that the sixth, “Ray Gun Ranger,” lacks passion or power as its irresistible mid-tempo bass pattern underpins some great moody space guitar sounds. It’s a real winner that comes across like a powered-up bastard son of “Out of Limits.” Yeah, it’s that good.

Another that stands out is the uptempo “Weightless Scramble” as its cleanly echoed guitar storms through a ’60s European-style racer. “Conundrum” is also more Euro influenced and both of these two come in at just under two minutes to leave you wanting more — but sensibly not giving it. “Space Trip” then takes us back on a, er, space trip with plenty of variation in guitar sounds delivering its “Flight of the Bumblebee-” style theme. Deeply echoed twang proudly leads “Victory in Space” before “The Challenge” winds things up with hints of “Star Wars” courtesy of Conrad’s processed guitars. Neatly presented in a glossy digipak.

(This album appears on the Editors’ top ten Playlist).

Here is another review, from Storm Surge of Reverb (StormSurgeOfReverb.com):

“To those accustomed to the standard loadout of surf hardware, The Insanitizers might sound a little insane. A lot of the effects that traditional surf groups might consider as novelty are happily employed by them, and perhaps more so on their new space-themed album than ever. I like hearing this band going full nutso — even if a sound has lost its initial impact, they get into occasional spots that make you think “what the hell was that?” And I think that’s a good thing. Importantly, this is not a psych/experimental album sneaking into the surf tent; underneath the swirling haze is either surf guitar or at least guitar instrumentals structured for surf and aiming for a surf ear with clear melodic drive.”

We are glad he enjoyed the melodies, underlying surf guitar approach, sense of humor, unusual textures and surprises.

“Space Force” Wins Best Instrumental Album Award

August 15, 2020. Insanitizers “Space Force” album today received the award for Best Instrumental album from The Akademia Group (TheAkademia.com). “It is the opinion of The Akademia Board that this work represents an important contribution towards the diversity and advancement of the global music community. There were hundreds of submissions received this month in your category, which made making a final decision extremely difficult.”

The Insanitizers’ “Space Force” album takes you on new adventures with gorgeous guitar tones you’ve never heard before, brilliant catchy melodies and lively beats. It features dramatic variations in timbre within and between songs. First edition CD albums are now shipping. Order directly from us for $13 (postpaid in USA, add $1 tax in WA state) via Paypal to insanitizers@gmail.com. Or order albums and download MP3s at insanitizers.bandcamp.com

Check our “Awards and Reviews” page for comments made by album listeners.

New “Space Force” album at Bandcamp, Spotify, Pandora, …

Twelve memorable reverb rock adventures with tuneful melodies and widely varying guitar tones. All organ-like and other-worldly tones are guitar. The first song “Space Force” has powerful melodies of ascent. In contrast, “Exotic Planet” is sensual. “Spacedrunk” sounds somewhat like “Switched-On Bach.” Each song has a different atmosphere. MP3 downloads and CD in Digi-Pak case now available. Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Apple Music (among others) stream it.