The Phantom Four & The Arguido

"...topquality compositions..."
"...instrumental guitar music from the surfboard with a glance to the Oriënt..."

Swie Tio - Revolver Magazine

"...cathcy compositions that instantly nestle in you head..."
"...This irresistalbly rambling dancemusic makes you surf happily smiling through Bollywood..."

Herman v/d Horst - Oor Magazine

This is the first formal release from the Phantom Four, and it is a superb set of mysterious and emotional songs based in surf and the Middle East. Trad fans may find too much to chew on here, but if you are adventurous at all, or a fan of the Treble Spankers or the Madeira, this will surely please you.

Kyma ****
An exotic beat and mysterious melody delivered with slightly edged twango create a strong and compelling image of the sensual and forbidden. Superb whammy at the ends of the guitar lines add to the sense of faraway and somewhat dangerous places. Way cool!

Bravado Blue *****
Mysterious and chop-chord driven, this dangerous piece projects a journey to a thieves den, an oasis where only the strong survive. Its outward sadness and simplicity mask the turmoil and risk within. I half expected something like the Aqua Velvets' "Bravado," but was very pleasantly surprised by a splendid Arabic influenced piece with rich textures and edge.

Il Deserto Rosso *****
There is a desert imagery here that lives up to the track's name. Angular and slightly threatening, with dangerous whammy and a sad melody, "Il Deserto Rosso" is a splendid piece for a moody afternoon.

Mr. Miff *****
I believe this is the only cover of The July 4's obscure "Mr. Miff." Gentle and tremolo laden, it shimmers and gently flows through a sad rock scene. Very nice!

Point Bristo *****
Big whammy sting, spaghetti scenery, and spy thrills come together in this fluid and engaging piece. "Point Bristo" even features fuzz guitar, which adds a sense of lurking danger. A superb track with a lot going for it.

Malabar ****
"Malabar" is a moderately fast surf number hinting of the Treble Spankers. Its Middle Eastern progression and chop chord coolness create circulating patterns of emotion and charm. Very cool.

E-Tonic ****
A frantic frat rock kind of energy, a long with a a tick-tock melody pattern create a sense of nervousness. The wild warbly whammy gives it a San Francisco 1966 feeling. At time thick, and at other times flippant, "E-Tonic" is an adventure in juxtaposition.

Sitara *****
The title suggests sitars, and guess what... "Sitara" is a splendid and dramatic track with ringing chords and sitar effects, along with very cool rolling keys. The mystery and moodiness of the exotic visions evoked by the songs' sound and structure are captivating. Simply superb!

4U ****
"4U" is a tense number with drama and a sad flowing melody. Rhythmically engaging and splashed with whammy, this exotic number delivers nervous anticipation.

Fismi ****
Tremolo throb, haunted melody lines, chord drama, and military drums create tension, while the smooth and gentle bass gives you somewhere to stand that's serene. The high note double picked lines hint of Italy and bad guys.

Fillmore East *****
With an R&B rhythm and beat, and a mysterious melody, "Fillmore East" seems oddly titled. Imagine a soul band born in Egypt and affected by the psychedelic music evolving around them. That might be an apt description. The midsection, with its backwards guitar and howling feedback, is surely psychedelic mind warping.

Mr. G ****
"Mr. G" is a slow piece with an open soft melody that floats on a sad scene. There's a sense of being trapped without anticipation of a way out. Quite affective. That said, there are parts of this that have the kind of new day dawning optimism that Jim Thomas' "Lonely Road" creates. Very nice.

Remo Rifles *****
"Remo Rifles" charges with intense energy and whammy. Dramatic and adventurous, with a more traditional melody line in an unconventional setting. I imagine this really rips in person.

Madhur ****
The main theme of "Madhur" seems to be a swirl of incense and mystery, along with dark whammy chords and big drama. The middle is sullen, almost terminal in its grief. The lighter passages surrounding it are more optimistic, with sitar-like effects. - Reverbcentral

This live recording is intended to hold wiggly fans until a studio CD is ready. The ambient sound is not bad, and the performances and writing are excellent!

Dellamorte Dellamore *****
This is a big and dramatic song with the edge of slow flamenco and the power of Dutch surf. A five minutes plus, it's also very fulfilling. About half way through, the pace picks up, and the desert influences become more pronounced. "Dellamorte Dellamore" is a spectacular song.

Rivolta ****
"Rivolta" is a song with nicely composed melody that has a sense of spaghetti western and the mysterious Mediterranean. A very good song with a solid arrangement and delightful whammy chords at the end of guitar lines.

Horst ****
"Horst" is a motion oriented song that takes you on a journey. Moody and emotional, spooky and well developed, it commands your undivided attention and rewards it with a rich panorama of melody and arranging.

7-Speed Blender *****
This is a dramatically cool song with mysterious rhythm and Middle Eastern imagery. "7-Speed Blender" doesn't rip, it slithers through sensation and the scent of the oasis. Really nice!

Il Deserto Rosso *****
Stinging whammy chords, a playful melody line, and a catchy rhythm combine in search of the illusive shimmering ahead that you never reach. The desert sun beats down as the invitation from the palms calls to you, but alas, they are not there. Great song!

Sitara *****
The title warns that the sitar is the inspiration for this fine work of art. This is not your mother's surf. It is as intriguing as the Woodies' "The Swami," but more playful and adventurous. A marvelous merger of styles and sounds.

Rampam ****
Unlike the other songs here, "Rampam" seems like a transmutation of "Istanbul" blended with an inverted "Music To watch Girls By." It's not at all derivative, but it seems to reference comfortable themes that lurk just below the radar. Fun track.

Pintor *****
Jack Irvin's "Pintor" first struck the surf scene via the Pharos. Whammy and an original arrangement have brought new life into this wonderful song.

Pink-A-Pade ***
"Pink-A-Pade" is a speedy surf thrasher somewhat like the Treble Spankers used to occasionally produce on occasion, though less melodic. Lots of circular energy and stompin' fun. Very fast double picking, with note transitions played like John Blair does, dropping one note to clarify the change. Very cool.

Malabar ****
A rompin' good-fun rhythm drives this playful and adventurous song. "Malabar" is exotic and very enjoyable, with a memorable melody line and engaging arrangement.

Mr. G ****
"Mr. G" is a slow piece with an open soft melody that floats on a sad scene. There's a sense of being trapped without anticipation of a way out. Quite affective. That said, there areparts of this that have the kind of new day dawning optimism that Jim Thomas' "Lonely Road" creates. Very nice.

Remo Rifles *****
"Remo Rifles" charges with intense energy and whammy. Dramatic and adventurous, with a more traditional melody line in an unconventional setting. I imagine this really rips in person.

Malaguena *****
There are lots of fine versions of Ernesto Lecuona's magnificent "Malaguena." This is another, with an original variation on the Trashmen's arrangement. In some ways, it's reminiscent of the Half Tribe of Mannasseh version, but with much more edge. Lots of drama and fire!

Mar Gaya *****
Randy Holden's often covered ode to "The Victor" is solidly done with the correct stompin' beat and dark power. The Phantom Four do justice to this Fender IV classic. - Reverbcentral

The Treble Spankers are dead, long live The Phantom Four. Frank Gerritsen, former mastermind behind the band is back to feed us with a portion of worldsurfrock.

The Phantom Four enhance their sound with Arab melodies like in ‘Malabar’, or slow exorcizing sitar sounds like in the titletrack. But the base of the music of The Phantom Four is rumbling, swinging, grooving surfrock.

Straight ahead, like in ‘Remo Rifles’ and ‘E-Tonic’, or with hypnotising sitar dancing over bass and drums like in ‘Bravado Blue’. The downtempo ‘Fismi’ has filmic qualities, actually the entire record would easily fit as soundtrack for Wild At Heart or Pulp Fiction. The record is at it's best when extremes come together: ‘Sitara’ starts with a loose Indian sitarmelody which slowly is being driven into whirling hardrockpsychelica of Monster Magnet-like proportions.

With "Madhur" The Phantom Four have delivered a fascinating and surprising record which is not only interesting to fans of surfrock alone.

Peter - Wobly

"...Phantom Frank steals the show for 45 minutes with his characteristic mixture of Eastern sounds coming from his Fender Jazzmaster. If Tarantino ever comes short of good surf I'd call Phantom Frank if I was him..." - Fileunder

Some time ago, I did a review on the last album of phantom Frank, the lead guitarist of the Dutch surf band, the Phantom Four. Frank was pleased with the review and promptly offered us to send a live recording of the Phantom Four. As he explained, this recording was never mend to be. Taped on a VHS recorder, this is the very first concert of the Phantom Four. Afterwards, when it turned out that the sound quality was OK it was given a limited release. So what better way to forget this awful summer and catch a ride on an exotic wave of surf instrumentals.

Once more you can hear exotic influences & instruments from all over the world. Going from India to Spain, from the Middle Eastern to Germany the Phantom four take you on a musical journey full of surprises and without boundaries. The Phantom Four doesn’t bring typical surf tunes but extend the genre with a great variation of exotic flavoured tunes & sounds. Among the better ones are “Rampan”, “Sitara” and the well-known classic “Malaguena”.

Since this recording was the very first show they did, it’s obvious that you can hear some missed chords, an unwanted note or even some falling drumsticks. But honestly the energy that burst out of this recording is so overwhelming that you won’t notice any of these. This album is definitely one to forget the rain, but better would be to catch Frank & his friends live. - Billybop

It’s the coldest night of the year so far. Fall already seems to have transcended into winter. In the heart of the Red Light District a squatted pub gives room to about fifty drinking and smoking friends. The graffiti on the walls tells the story of dozens of punk and garage bands who have played here over the years. The excitement among the band and the audience is high, this will be The Phantom Four’s very first concert. Since the beginning of 2004 Frank Gerritsen (The Treble Spankers), Marnix Krabbendam (The Budgetics), Marc de Regt (Kek’66) and Niels Jansen (The Butcher’s Wife) have been gathering to write and play together. This will be a test case, the revelation of their repertoire to their core audience.

With the intro of Dellamorte Dellamore (a sort of “Marche Funebre” of the Sicilian Mafia), The Phantom Four set the tone for what’s to come. In the following hour they reveal their sound, song by song. With the lonesome taxi ride of Il Deserto Rosso, the German “Krimi” Horst, the Indian sitar psychedelia of Sitara and the Middle Eastern party sounds of Malabar they show their disregard of any musical boundaries.

They play with great energy, enthusiasm and finesse, at one moment gently stroking and tickling their instruments while seconds later brutally and forcefully exploding like a hurricane. After a breathtaking three quarters of an hour the band concludes their set with the surf classic Malaguena. But the excited audience won’t let them go, they demand an encore. It is only after they squeeze out their last drops of energy during The Fender Four’s masterpiece Margaya that the satisfied audience let them leave the stage.

What the people experienced this night is that The Phantom Four take you on an adventurous instrumental journey across the globe. Considering this to be their very first concert and the rumour that they have a lot more material up their sleeve, The Phantom Four are definitely a band to keep an eye on in the future. If you get the chance to see them live, go check ‘em out. - Surfcity magazine

the story behind the cd is, that they filmed their debut try-out gig (for fifty people or so) on video, for themselves to watch for learning purposes. the sound turned out pretty well, and the people attending the gig and those catching the buzz afterwards kept demaning for the recordings, and so, they decided to put it on a proper cd.

it's pressed in a limited quantity, don't know how much exactly but the booklet says 'a limited quantity for our first fans' - I'd be highly surprized if they made more then 500 copies. And then, they are planning to record a 'real' studio album in oktober, which might make it less interesting for them to ever do a rerun of this first live cd - in other words, if you ever were a big phantom Frank fan, who can predict for himself that after he found out the studio album is freakin' amazing (which I'm sure it will be) is going to want this first curiosum, and will regret it if it isn't available anymore - and I know the Treble Spankers are highly sought after - then do yourself a favor and order it now! (and after reading tat sentence, please forgive me and bear in mind I 'm not a native speaker ;-))

So, what can you expect if you order this cd - apart from mediocre, but surely not bad production values, it actually is a lot better then what you'd expect of a cd being recorded with a video camera. (in any case, it's better then most of the bootlegs fans paid shitloads of money before the internet came around)

you get nice artwork, a few liner notes, and apart from Phantom Frank, three musicians of local fame, all with plenty chops.

You get eleven Phantom Frank originals (some written together with other bandmembers), with titles like "dellamorte dellamore", 7-speed blender", Malabar and Remo Rifles.

Songs obviously remind of the treble spankers. Strangly, if I'd describe the music i'd use the same words as I'd describe the treble spankers (the ethnic influences, funky rhythm feel at times, very dynamic and passionate guitarplaying) but somehow, you can hear the difference at once. Franks playing, well having seen him live makes me think he suffered somewhat from the RSI. but nevermind that. I never saw the spankers play live, so I can now only compare studio spankers with live phantom, which isn't a fair comparison, but I have the idea that Franks playing has become more dynamic, more emotional. more subtle too. which is great and which in my idea sets him apart especially in the surf genre (to which he obviously doesn't belong in the first place, btw, from a purist perspective.) I'm avery curious about the studio album.

There is plenty variation, a tension building, very slow, very dramatic dellamorte dellamore, a sad ballad "mr. G', turkish funk pink-a-pade, with a rhythm pattern that really makes you want to get drunk and dance strangly, to hard fast and fast punk biffing* on malabar (which, btw, should have been called MALABAR!!!!!, yes, it's loud fast and mean.) (*biffing means playing the snare on every beat - not a clue if there is a more common word for it. We call it biffing after Biff Biggins, nickname for one of the heaviest dutch drummers) There are the ethnic influences you'd expect from Frank, middle eastern sounds and indian like things, but you get more - you get sitar! Frank now has an electric sitar, which he plays on some songs live (two on this album, "Sitara" and Rampam) and it sounds absolutly amazing! and, there are also the more straight surf songs, like "remo rifles" - solid, but less adventurous compositions.

next to eleven originals, there are three covers. Margaya I didn't care for too much, it's okay, but it has been done better - it seems they had to squeeze that one out of themselves after there first audience kept begging for more after they played everything they knew. "the pintor" is done very cool - mucho of the dynamic dramatic subtly in franks playing, and on this one you can also hear the quality of the rest of the band to the extreme - all very dynamic players, with great rhythm feel. and then there is malaguena, which they made their 'piece the resistance'. - one of the larger questions of life has always been: "is surf-music jammable?" I'always thought not, but now I hold the position that you shouldn't be allowed to comment on the question, I you haven't seen the phantom four play Malaguena. At 7 minutes, it could be all arranged to the smallest detail, but i saw them play it live, and there is so much communication between musicians, so much giving pointers going on, that it's almost jazz in the way it's done. and what a blast it is, from supersoft subtle interplay between quitars, to provoquative cressendo full chord double picking, to muliple hit your tank crashes.

despite the lower then desired sound quality, this is an amazing album. If you can live with the sort of sound you get when miking a live band from a distance, then it's really worth getting. If not, you can always wait for the studio album - having heard this one and having seen 'em live, it is going to be absolutly killer!

WR - SurfGuitar101 group

They blew the roof off the Lima-tent at the Lowlands festival. Those who were there and want to relive that sensation - but obviously others as well - can go to the better record store today. Debut-cd Madhur contains fourteen tracks with surfmusic as it is meant to be. Gitarist Phantom Frank made fame halfway the nineties with The Treble Spankers, probably the best surfband in Dutch history. - Metro