Friday, April 10, 2026 (Akron, Ohio) – Golems of the Red Planet are set to release their entirely instrumental debut album titled, Surf Masada: The Compositions Of John Zorn, on June 12, 2026 on Heyday Again Records (CD distributed by Redeye via Real Gone and digital via Distrokid and Bandcamp). Pre-sale link HERE goes live at 10 a.m. Pacific time.
All the tracks begin as musical “snippets” from composer John Zorn’s monumental 613-piece Masada project—rooted in Ashkenazi Jewish folk modalities that, perhaps unexpectedly, share DNA with the tonal language of classic surf music. “We expand, rearrange, and reimagine these compact compositions, adding our own elements without constraint—except one: at least one toe must hit the surf” says band co-founder Harvey Gold. Hence, Surf Masada—where desert scales meet reverb and the Mediterranean crashes into the Pacific.
Golems of the Red Planet are a collision of lifers, iconoclasts, and joyful saboteurs drawn from the outer edges of art rock, jazz, surf, and the happily unclassifiable. Guitarist Harvey Gold, a founding force behind Akron, Ohio’s legendary band Tin Huey, brings decades of boundary-pushing work with acts like Half Cleveland, Sally Spring, The HiFis, and his solo release It’s Messy Vol. 1. Bassist Mark Allender—true Zornophile—emerges from The Pointless Orchestra and a string of idiosyncratic solo albums. Drummer Bob Ethington has anchored everything from bands like Unit 5 and Glenn Lazear to The Robert Ethington Quintet. Cellist Matt Reese adds a melodic wild card honed with Trial of Lucy and Flying Carpet People. Together, they form a band whose collective resume is really a map of creative resistance.
While the band operates within a “surf” framework, this album won’t sit comfortably alongside many traditional surf recordings. The reverb and propulsion are there, but stylistically Golems are charting a more eccentric path. Eclecticism and creative risk are central to what the band is doing. They amalgamate the restless experimentation of John Zorn, the art-damaged angles of Tin Huey and Pere Ubu, and the bold textural presence of Electric Light Orchestra, The Move, and Roy Wood. This is especially apparent in the prominence of the cello in a rock setting. That unlikely instrumentation is a defining trait for the band: the cello isn’t ornamental, it’s structural.
“Individually and collectively, we draw from wide-ranging influences,” says Mark Allender. “There’s the warped blues chaos of Captain Beefheart, the exploratory psych of The Soft Machine, the stripped down cool of The Velvet Underground, and the shadowy edge of The Cure… and don’t get me started on Chicago! At day’s end, we are what we eat—and we’ve consumed a lot of different music. It comes out as surf at its core, but twisted through art-rock, experimental pop, and whatever odd corners we’ve rounded along the way.”
The album was produced by Golems of the Red Planet and Jeffrey Koval, and was primarily recorded at, and all mixing and mastering was handled at: Sta-Level Studios in Akron, Ohio. The album was recorded between 2020-2025.
Surf Masada: The Compositions of John Zorn track listing:
1. Hadrial 4:02
2. Mehalalel 3:10
3. Hutriel 4:35
4. Paschar/Tzo 2:47
5. Mo’ed 4:24
6. Ziphim 3:23
7. Damam 3:37
8. Hazor 4:01
9. Re’cha 2:44
10. Belial 2:40
Golems of the Red Planet is:
Harvey Gold, guitar, keyboards.
Mark Allender, bass.
Bob Ethington, drums, percussion.
Matt Reese, cello.
Golems of the Red Planet live in concert:
Friday, April 24th at Jilly’s Music Room with Jupiter 2 tickets HERE.
Friday, June 19th at Beachland Tavern with Jupiter 2 tickets HERE.
Visit Golems of the Red Planet online: