Product Description

This Scottish quartet bounces from Four Freshman-style pre-rock balladry to menacing hiphop and demented Elvis-style rockabilly that has mutated into an amalgam of the Bonzo Dog Band and Roy Wood's Wizzard. And that's just on the first song! After that, singer Stephen Mason (who sounds uncannily like Pink Floyd's Roger Waters) and the Beta Band crew sound like the sort of group that would rather talk endlessly aboutother bands' records than make its own. This fact is borne out by the way the sweetly poppy and relatively normal "Round The Bend" devolves into Mason's enthusiastic spoken comparison of late '60s Beach Boys albums. The Beta Band's membersaren't mere nutters, however, as the lovely, Soft Machine-like "It's Not Too Beautiful" and the extended piano coda of "The Hard One" prove. This album is clearly the product of four men with more a superabundance of ideas and a contagioustry-anything-once attitude.

Track Listing

1. The Beta Band rap
2. It's Not Too Beautiful
3. Simple Boy
4. Round The Bend
5. Dance O'er The Border
6. Broken Up A Ding Dong
7. Number 15
8. Smiling
9. The hard one
10. The cow's wrong

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51242 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
When a record that starts with a freakish rendering of the '40s novelty tune "Mr. Sandman" collides into a loping rap that boasts of chicken, fish, and cold love in Scotland and then maneuvers into a rave-up worthy of Elvis, it normally would spell trouble. But the Beta Band actually manage to make this wacked-out pastiche work. The Scottish combo skillfully massage their tracks into thrilling sound collages that draw on electronica, country, prog rock, and psychedelia without ever going beyond the point of kitsch. The stoned beauty of "It's Not Too Beautiful" recalls the mesmerizing layered vocals of Pink Floyd, but tosses in a demented breakdown to throw any nostalgia seeker off the scent. The steel drums and reggae bass line of "No. 15" combine shamble with shuffle to give this slacker's recitation of "15 reasons not to spend my life with you" a lazy charm. The Beta Band extend a simple invitation with their woozy music: Get baked. --Lois Maffeo

Customer Reviews

Give it some time!
Another excellent album from the excellent Beta Band, although due to its slighty sprawling nature perhaps not the best album to buy first. The band themselves described this album as the worst record to come out that year and on first listening I could almost agree with them, but given some time the album reveals some of their best work. It lacks the immediate impact of their previous EP's and later albums, but once you get past the slight 'wackiness' and apparent lack of structure there are some beautiful moments and songs, they are just well hidden. Stylistically the album is very eclectic, incorporating elements of dance, hip hop, electronica, reggae and folk, but forget the pointless comparisons to Beck or Pink Floyd because the Beta Band have created their own truly unique and slightly skewed sound. It is also worth tracking down the vinyl for the beautiful gatefold case it comes in.
In summary it is an album that is slighly hard to grasp on the first couple of listens, but by investing a little time it is a very rewarding experience.
RIP The Beta Band

If only all albums were made like this
I have no idea why The Beta Band are so ashamed with their eponymous debut. For a band to be given the creative freedom they were given at such an early stage in their career is a definate sign of incredible talent, and giving creative control to these guys was a very good idea. Definately song based, but every song manages to achieve so much by exploring four hundred different ideas at a time. Even the hyper minimalist Simple Boy is greater than the entire back catalogues of some bands. Extremely simple drums and almost gregorian chanting, but the lyrics and overall mood create a work of inspired genius.

The album's strongest point is It's Not Too Beautiful, an ominous broody psychadelic plod through a dark forest that erupts into a breakdown of sampled orchestration and Dark Side of the Moon style sound effects.

Other tracks to note are Smiling, which could be classed as funk were it not for the speeded up vocals, and The Hard One, ten minutes of ticking clocks, ominous bass chords and "borrowed" lyrics.

Weirdly, it is during the more conventional moments when the album falters. The acoustic folk epic of Broken Up A Dingdong would sound fantastic on 3 EPs, but simply sounds out of place on this collection which defies description. The same can be said for the cheeky assertions of Number 15. ("Fifteen reasons not to spend my life with you".) Excellent song, but definately out of place.

The band described this album as an awful collection of "half songs with jams in the middle". I can sort of see where they're coming from, but is that really a bad thing? I have not heard anything like this before, it's a real step forward. The band should count this as their finest moment.

I only wish they'd been allowed to go along with the original plan to include a second disk that featured a single hour long descent into madness. Hopefully this will one day surface in a box set or something, but until then we can only dream.

Grows on you like a rash (in a nice way)
Having adored "The 3 EPs", I eagerly ripped open the packing as soon as this album arrived, but it left me strangely cold on the first few listens. At that point, the two "daft" tracks near the beginning, Beta Band Rap and Round the Bend, were the most accessible, mainly because of the obvious narrative and energy. However, this grates after a while, so I turned to the latter part of the album. Broken Up A Ding Dong is a classic. You know that scene in High Fidelity (film version) where Rob puts on The 3 EPs to get 5 quick sales? He could do the same with this track. I don't know how I missed it first time, but it's outstanding for its sheer tune and gusto, plus some excellent production. The more downbeat Number 15 then leads into Smiling, building up in layers with a great piano backing. If you find yourself disoriented on first listen, just make sure it doesn't stay on the shelf - the most important thing you can give this album is time.