the beta band were great.
they mixed up studio trickery, layered vocals, and head spinning melodies.
of course not everything the band released worked. their excesses and eccentricities were infamous (declaring your debut album crap upon its release is never going to go down well with anyone really is it !), but give me a band that experiments as well as creating songs that move any day over the meat-n-2-veg standard indie gubbins.
so, when the beta band split i was a little concerned that their brand of pop was to be filed away and forgotten.
yesterday having scoured my hard disc for that all important manic pop thrill, i realised i had an inescapable urge to listen to the beta band, but the cds were 25 miles away buried in the ireallylovemusic archive.
i realised than rather listen to the stuff i have already heard, using spotify i could check on the aliens output.
i should have trusted the lads, so far from what i’ve heard, it’s great stuff.
sprawling psychedelia infused pop music that of course references the beach boys, but also the spaced out productions of pink floyd, and even lee perrys dub.
subsequently, i will definitely be investigating the bands two albums (one major, one self released) more over the next couple of days while the sun continues to shine.
in the meantime, here’s a nice little remix of one of the debuts highlights, robot man, by hot chip.
enjoy.
mp3 : the aliens – robot man (hot chip remix)
more detail : here