When the Beta Band first hit in 1998 with The Three EPs, the band seemed incapable of doing wrong with their infectiously murky, psychedelic mixture of contemporary electronic and early ‘70s stoner rock. Their songs seemed to fall apart as quickly as they came together, and this disposable quality made them classic, in a weird way. But while those EPs recalled the days of Canterbury prog without the silly Tolkein-isms, or the "Madchester" scene sans the nasty drugs, the group’s music has slowly slid into a disparaging mediocrity since then; it seems that the harder the Beta Band tries to be a real band, the worse the result. The tunes on Heroes all have the same muddy sound, sung in the same mushmouth-y style. By 2004, the mantle of loose, weird and fun experimental pop seems to be firmly in the hands of groups like the Go! Team in the UK and the Animal Collective stateside. --Mike McGonigal
Product Description
With props in John Cusack's High Fidelity for their classic '3 EPs' and a much-lauded US tour with Radiohead, The Beta Band have established themselves as one of the most innovative and adored groups from the UK. Their third official album HEROES TO ZEROS captures the focused immediacy and power of their epic live shows, while maintaining the sample-tastic digital sorcery of their previous releases. Mixed by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Air, Beck). Features "Assessment".
Heroes to Zeros,The Beta Band,Astralwerks,Indie Electronic,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop
Heroes to Zeros
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Heroes to Zeros
The Beta Band Manufacturer: Astralwerks ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
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ASIN: B0001LYGXU Release Date: 2004-05-04 |
Tracks:
- Assessment
- Space
- Lion Thief
- Easy
- Wonderful
- Troubles
- Out-Side
- Space Beatle
- Rhododendron
- Liquid Bird
- Simple
- Pure For
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When the Beta Band first hit in 1998 with The Three EPs, the band seemed incapable of doing wrong with their infectiously murky, psychedelic mixture of contemporary electronic and early `70s stoner rock. Their songs seemed to fall apart as quickly as they came together, and this disposable quality made them classic, in a weird way. But while those EPs recalled the days of Canterbury prog without the silly Tolkein-isms, or the "Madchester" scene sans the nasty drugs, the group's music has slowly slid into a disparaging mediocrity since then; it seems that the harder the Beta Band tries to be a real band, the worse the result. The tunes on Heroes all have the same muddy sound, sung in the same mushmouth-y style. By 2004, the mantle of loose, weird and fun experimental pop seems to be firmly in the hands of groups like the Go! Team in the UK and the Animal Collective stateside. --Mike McGonigalAlbum Description
With props in John Cusack's High Fidelity for their classic '3 EPs' and a much-lauded US tour with Radiohead, The Beta Band have established themselves as one of the most innovative and adored groups from the UK. Their third official album HEROES TO ZEROS captures the focused immediacy and power of their epic live shows, while maintaining the sample-tastic digital sorcery of their previous releases. Mixed by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Air, Beck). Features "Assessment".Customer Reviews:
Beta's usually do not grasp without hooks .......2007-01-11
Songs such as "Assessment" and "Out-side" deliver the baggage to rock out with the best bands out there, and the audience should agree that if they stuck to this traditional type of musicianship, and delivered thunderous beats backed by memorable lyrics, this album would have been a classic. However, with the exception of two songs song called "Liquid Bird" and "Space Beatle," of which, got it right by avoiding being measured by their poppy ways, this album is pretty snooze inducing. The other eight songs on the album just do not catch a good stride, are buoyed by too many repetitions and inconstancies, feel incomplete, and are downright inattention getting.
One of the reasons for these songs inability to thrill is that the music here is slowed down to the point of being downright still. This involvement makes the listener not want to be emotionally moved by the song, and especially does not make them want to get up and dance, which is such a sad thing to be saying about a band with as much talent as this.
The Beta Band does have what it takes to jam as well as the best bands out there, but they choose to go quietly this time around. It is as if The Beta Band wanted to be too original, but sadly, their aspirations did not quite accompany their style.
Sometimes, or actually, most of the time, a band is great when the music does not take the typical routes of regularity. However, this is an album that proves that sometimes ordinary is just fine, and would especially make for a much better record.
*** (Out of 5)
Can't imagine why a fan wouldn't LOVE it.......2006-10-06
bang for your buck!.......2006-08-26
JUST SO GOOD. you brought yourself to the page for some reason, just follow your instinct and BUY THIS.
Silence the Critics!.......2006-01-21
Sunny Delight.......2005-11-25
A Northern California haze was enchanting. Around the corner at Community Market I knew where to find quiet, talkative friends or that girl I was uncontrollably in love with. Between night and day music was strummed, drums were drummed, we matched bowls, and though I wasn't from this land I felt so with these brothers. Accompanied by Spring smells, the Sun never let us down. It all melted together in search of a link to some ancient way of reading tire marks.
An old friend handed me a copy of the late Beta Band's determinate Heroes to Zeros. The Three EP's was all I knew of them; it had given me a sense of unity, and the closest thing I had gotten into was at least twenty years older. Overall the new album has become as important to me as Kid A (Radiohead), a monument, more listenable than my favourite and completely different, The Residents' Gingerbread Man, and is maybe the band's most accessible release. In the spirit of my whereabouts at the time there was no musical equal; this was it.
These are the most whole songs they have recorded. Their earlier work is remarkable: wobbly, spontaneous acts of faith, yet building blocks of Heroes to Zeros. It's not easy to explain such unconventionally changing music, yet it is organized. Compared to Hot Shots II, it is no doubt just a different album but with less sampling, more useful sparseness of their comical electronica, and more focused song-writing of well-rounded lengths as opposed to earlier pieces more open to spontaneity. Heroes to Zeros suggests a summing up of practices in an embrace of their deeper sound. They have been criticized for being too soft, for being too diluted in live performances, and if that's true or not, their newest shows a breaking down to essentials.
They open with cascading guitar and drums like any of many power rock intros, simple and accessible. The song balances the sound with lighter instruments of the more feminine side, being faithful to the pleasing major key. In this spirit the music alone utters a calling fresh to listen to every time. Beta Band's experimentation paid off more than ever with Heroes to Zeros. The album is warm, and emphasizes letting go. It's no wonder they split up with its completion.
The album attains many balances: outgoing and subdued (Out-Side), clean and distorted (Assessment, Out-Side, Easy, Space), harmonious and discordant (sparsely, as in Lion Thief), personal and indifferent, quiet and loud, gradual and sudden (Liquid Bird compared with Pure For), ambience and melody (all), etc. And with the last especially, Nigel Godrich has got to be thanked for his mixing and influence. Just when the music is getting intense the songs wash over you. It's an album for rocking out as much as tripping out, but does more for reflection and encouragement.
The lyrics are open windows, social, sometimes cosmic concerns that seem to find a balance between the unsolvable and the simple needs of happiness. They hang out with the listener and are by no means merely academic. They use the music to resonate their questions. Each song is exploratory. The effective use of bridges/modulation in structure unfolds the questions of songs like Liquid Bird and Out-Side by transforming them midway. `How far can a man go/Crawlin on his elbows/Fallin through his window...', and after the bridge, `Is it true what they say/About life when you're dead?' Masons lyrics bring us a long way into the band's visions, often ambiguously but not without direction, and never lacking earnest. Troubles is straight to the point and consistent, without the individualized context used in say, Easy. It's funny how many versions of these lyrics can be found on the web, even though they come with the album. They are very hard to hear at times, and seem to be playing tricks on listeners.
Look closely at lyrics for Easy and you see a stubborn context advocating honesty. Space Beatle lyrics are about reaching for prayer methinks. Lyrics for Space are focused on unknown things like stars, friends, the milky-way and its likenesses to the former. I think it's an important song because it sounds like amongst all these mysteries, one is just round the crooked corner (`More or less').
Friendship is not left behind as a song subject or even as a song form, but with Steve Mason's willing way of saying his songs he puts himself beside us (`You never know whose there beside you/Who will be your comfort'). Lion Thief plainly explores phoney friends in all of us and the unheeded `small ones'. His voice has a swing feel with a well-earned history of disobeying vocalist rules and clichés. In Hot Shots II we got Steve running his mouth and speaking his mind (at least), and now he returns to plug us into deeper moments that new songs are written for. Simple is a re-evaluation of friendships gone awry and simply exercises trying to find a friend. The repeated chorus is far-reaching and especially encouraging, and Beta Band know you hear them.
Assessment is so springy and encouraging. After its long power triumph (`...the time has come for decision'), the album quickly takes us through different concerns with a notion of what has to be said in little time. I think that notion of short time is vital to the album. By the end we have seen a wide range of explorations and leave with the rested outro of Pure For with piano notes indifferent to the key of the song, the sense of graduating distance. So the album takes us from day to night, from things like victory to humility.
In Assessment it sounds like Mason is doing more with those bountiful vocals than any of the instruments. His la-la in Space is done in such a serene state it sounds effortless but is exactly what the song needs. It's possible that they have never used so many vocal tracks. They fill the corners of the songs that the instruments don't cover. Somehow the production still allows for a space to be felt.
Heroes to Zeros is journeyed with well-placed unique moments. One of my favourites is in Lion Thief when the guitars stop with the singing, and darkness surrounds the unanswered question: `Where do you go when you hide your love away?' isolated by breathless loops and a car-warning alarm sound. By the time melodies have digested this issue we leave the song helplessly, as all the songs. They all explore unchangeable matters.
The songs not written about here are just as special as the rest in different ways. Someone with well-practiced meditation or background in religious or ethnic music should be reviewing this fresh piece. I am more enlightened as a result of Heroes to Zeros. It always brings me to my senses. It will be remembered and relived as a spiritual teaching.
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Heroes to Zeros
The Beta Band Manufacturer: Emi ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Indie Rock
| Indie & Lo-Fi
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Electronic Pop
| Indie & Lo-Fi
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
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Electronica
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ASIN: B0001IW4IW Release Date: 2004-04-26 |
Tracks:
- Assessment
- Space
- Lion Thief
- Easy
- Wonderful
- Troubles
- Out-Side
- Space Beatle
- Rhododendron
- Liquid Bird
- Simple
- Pure For
Customer Reviews:
Heroes.......2005-02-03
It starts off with a bang in the thumping "Assessment," with a wonderfully roaring wall o' guitar riffs that makes your ears tingle. Following that are experimental numbers (the eclectic "Rhododendron" with its bells, organs and bongos and wonderfully strange "Liquid Bird"), swelling strings ("Simple" and "Wonderful" are simply wonderful), before finishing with the distant electronic-tinged "Pure For."
"Heroes and Zeroes" strikes a good balance between quirky rock and experimental stuff. Not to mention that the Beta Band manage to combine things that would sound silly in many bands. And their songs are unusually creative and elegant (meaning: songs like "Wonderful" won't make you sick).
Frontman Steve Mason is in good form here; few singers could repeat "She's so wonderful" without sounding goofy. And ear-friendly depression lends itself well, as downbeat as the cover is comic. "I think I cracked my skull on the way down/I think I lost my head when I lay down/The fear of facts presented in the cold light of day," Mason sings mournfully.
And the instrumentation is solid and sweeping. Harmonica? Organ? Electronics? Chime-y guitars? Strong percussion? Horns? Sweeping strings? Barking dogs? All here, and all somehow meshed together. There are messy bits, but they're easily skimmed over in favor of just how pretty or rock-y the Beta Band can be.
This Scottish band proves they've still got it it, in this sweeping, eclectic collection that blends solid rockers with some of the sweetest ballads. Good job, lads.
I love you to pieces, I love you to pieces..........2004-04-30
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