From Heroes to Zeros

When this Scottish foursome put out their debut album in 1999, they famously said that it was one of the worst of the year, and the mistake of a lifetime. Those who heard it thought otherwise of course. ?Hot Shots II?a couple of years later continued their trend of rampant imagination and persistent experimentation. Warm and fuzzy tunes, yet never quite comfortable. Tracks that made you stop and think, but from a bunch of roguish clowns that shouldn?t be taken seriously. Or should they?

So expect the unexpected for opus #3 but what makes this their best work to date is a musical maturity, though not at the expense of being playfully fun. There are numerous variations within a theme, from the unpredictably funky bassline of ?Easy?to the more expansive (yet somehow bare) organ and string section on ?Simple? Meanderingly good even though it doesn?t have an obvious destination. ?Space?is curiously plodding, yet strangely atmospheric and ?Lion Thief?is a drifting, melodic almost folk-ey experience. Awesome. Something also shared with ?Troubles?or the brief interlude that ?Rhododendron?is. Then there?s the intriguing, echoey fragmented dreamscape of ?Space Beatle?

?Assessment?is one of their most straight-forward pop tracks to date, and the most immediate of the bunch with it?s U2-esque opening riffs. No really. Not the best necessarily, but faves will more likely depend on the listener?s mood, than the tune itself. Those are often confusing, but always beguiling. Tracks that go off at a tangent, even within a single tune. ?Out-Side?is strong pop, but the barking dog makes it distinctively a Beta Band creation. The sampling on ?Liquid Bird?is inspired, and creates something that is both unique and sounds great.

They play with the technology well (and handle the self-production deftly), but never loose sight of their offbeat humour. The self depreciating album title and quirky interlaced sound effects are assertion of that. It would be too easy to show off their abstract ideas wrapped up in studio wizardry and so generate a sonic shambles (perhaps one of their past failings), but by and large the whole album does sound good in addition to being wildly impressive.

Pop-art rock can easily fall into the pretentious rubbish category, but these guys bend expectations so much that it doesn?t really matter if traditional songs don?t come out of the melodic sausage machine. A clutch of tracks that are never ostentatious, occasionally sublime and 110% genuine. Each one is varied with a different character, however the whole entity manages to be surprisingly cohesive. Impossible to categorise and uncertain to understand, but intriguing nonetheless. It?s refreshing that the Betas have not lost any of their eccentricity in the 5 years of growing up. Four incredulous individuals that make up a particularly singular band.

Neil Chase
Music Editor