Beta Band: Credibility and quality

The Beta Band are lauded by the cool crowd

By BBC News Online's Ian Youngs

Although the first single from Hot Shots II, The Beta Band's second proper album, only entered the charts at number 30 recently, many regard this four-piece as one of the most innovative and influential new bands for years.

Dedicated followers of the alternative music scene are likely to rant about how they burst onto the scene in 1997 with three startlingly fresh and addictive EPs that set new standards for rock and alternative experimentation.

Unfortunately, they had to warn fans that their first full album, out in 1999, was "the worst record made this year".

But Hot Shots II gets much closer to the bullseye.

Experimental

The Beta Band are this decade's answer to all those experimental and revered but highly obscure guitar bands of the 1970s - worshipped by a cult of musical trainspotters while the rest of the radio-listening public got on with their lives.

This time around, The Beta Band fuse guitars with electronica to make something that is neither rock nor dance.

The music is difficult and anxious but tuneful and strangely compelling. It is dark and druggy but not depressing, nor painfully intense.

Steve Mason's repetitive, deadpan vocals - which sound like half-singing and half-chanting - are slightly distant and monotonous.

The musical backing, which includes bass guitar, sparse keyboards and all manner of kitchen implements including pots, jars and sink U-bends, follow the same pattern and are squeezed into the same, seemingly narrow sonic range.

Structured

The songs on Hot Shots II are more structured than recent material by Radiohead - who have also been employed in electronic experimentation - and do with little black boxes what Elbow do with guitars, but with less angst.

Other comparisons could be Super Furry Animals without the psychedelia, or the latest left-field darlings Simian.

The Beta Band will always have a rabidly loyal, if relatively small following - and will always be adored by those who define being cool as the opposite of being popular.

The band are not going to argue with being part of that scene - the photo on the back cover of the CD is taken by Corrine Day, whose celebrated but notoriously unorthodox career has mirrored that of the band.

Credibility and popularity may seem incompatible to some, but credibility and quality are not.

This album is a return to form - even if The Beta Band have not yet turned into the mind-blowing geniuses many of their fans had hoped.

Hot Shots II is released on 16 July on the Regal record label