Surf-guitar inventor Dick Dale says he named this album after what can happen when a pilot who’s enveloped by clouds loses trust in his instruments. Without visual contact with Earth, he may find himself flying straight for it. But Dale’s heady rush of thick notes aims skyward, even on a surf interpretation of "Smoke on the Water," which leaps from Deep Purple’s signature riff to Dale’s trademark flurries of machine-gun picking. Not to mention the kind of drum breakdown that’s been the middle of every great beach-party number since the ’50s, when Dale began his career.

At 65, this Quincy native boasts undiminished powers, blasting his way through instrumentals like "HHFIC" and "The Eliminator." He’s also expanding his palette. The title track tosses in tricks like backwards feedback, and almost half the album features his deliberate, full-toned acoustic-guitar playing. It’s with the acoustic that he does much of his exploring, drawing on his heritage for the Middle Eastern scales of "Haji" and blending Gypsy guitar with the sonic filigrees of Ennio Morricone (chanting female voices, the sound of whispering winds) on "Oasis of Mara." There are a couple vocal pieces here, notably the ballad "Belo Horizonte," which gets a horns-and-muted-picking treatment that recalls the Mexican-style ballads of the late C&W singer Marty Robbins. But the biggest blast remains hearing Dale blaze away on his Stratocaster.

(Dick Dale appears downstairs at the Middle East next Saturday, May 25. Call 617-864-EAST.)