With winter here for a while, there's no better way to recreate the joy the carefree summer cruisin' that throwing some surf music on the ol' turntable. The ol' CD player, I mean.

Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet are Canada's foremost practitioners of the surf sound, and their latest album - a compilation of seven-inch records released since 1985 - offers 18 tunes' worth of the eternally cool instrumental sound that groups like the Ventures produced so well. In these days of raunchy guitar gods, a trebly lead guitar playing pretty melodies over a freewheeling bass 'n' drum combo is still mighty hard to beat.

Steve Newton