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The Beta Band
 
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The Beta Band

~ Beta Band
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
Price: £10.88 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually dispatched within 1 to 3 weeks.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

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Frequently Bought Together

The Beta Band + Hot Shots II + Heroes To Zeros
Price For All Three: £24.44

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  • This item: The Beta Band ~ The Beta Band

    Usually dispatched within 1 to 3 weeks.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Hot Shots II ~ The Beta Band

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Heroes To Zeros ~ The Beta Band

    In stock.
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Product details

  • Audio CD (1 Oct 1999)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Regal
  • ASIN: B0000257X9
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 19,536 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Extraits
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. The Beta Band Rap 4:40£0.69
Listen  2. It's Not Too Beautiful 8:29£0.69
Listen  3. Simple Boy 2:18£0.69
Listen  4. Round The Bend 4:56£0.69
Listen  5. Dance O'er The Border 5:33£0.69
Listen  6. Broken Up A Ding Dong 4:46£0.69
Listen  7. Number 15 6:49£0.69
Listen  8. Smiling 8:35£0.69
Listen  9. The Hard One10:06£0.69
Listen10. The Cow's Wrong 5:49£0.69

Product Description

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

CD 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.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Bit of a let down, 11 Dec 1999
By A Customer
After hearing 'The 3 EP's' I was really looking forward to this album. Unfortunately, only 1 of the opening 7 tracks (the epic 'It's not too beautiful') is worth the CD space. The other 6 veer from weak ('Simple boy') to irritating (the awful 'Beta Band Rap'). However, the last 3 tracks are well up to their previous high standards. So if you liked '3 EP's' and don't mind shelling out album price for another ep's worth of decent tracks....
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Grows on you like a rash (in a nice way), 8 Feb 2001
By A Customer
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If only all albums were made like this, 8 Feb 2005
By Elliot Davies "ahttt" (Liverpool, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars 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. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2006 by Funkee Homosapien

4.0 out of 5 stars flawed genius
This bizarrely experimental album is one which gets better and better each time you hear it. The first, not entirely serious, track, is a lot of fun and is followed by a... Read more
Published on 28 May 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars Beta beta beta beta
After hearing the excellent 3 EPs album, I rushed out to buy this on release. On first listening I was dissapointed, finding I could only listen to 3 tracks. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Good opening song.
Many great bands have started off their careers with a greatopening song, so what does the Beta Band have in-store for us. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 1999

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Beta Band
43% buy the item featured on this page:
The Beta Band 4.3 out of 5 stars (7)
£10.88
The Three EPs
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Hot Shots II
15% buy
Hot Shots II 4.7 out of 5 stars (20)
£5.78
Heroes To Zeros
11% buy
Heroes To Zeros 4.3 out of 5 stars (15)
£7.78
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