Distribution
Forced Exposure
Country/Region of Manufacture
France
Additional information
As the title suggests, this disc collects the first three UK releases by Scotland's Beta Band. Singer/guitarist Stephen Mason, bassist Richard Greentree, drummer Robin Jones, and DJ/tape manipulator John McLean demonstrate astonishingly febrile imaginations over the course of these 12 songs. They pick up and discard ideas with wicked glee and a contagious try-anything-once attitude. Imagine Frank Zappa, Beck, and Robert Wyatt leading the Bonzo Dog Band! Another strong influence appears to be turn-of-the-'70s Pink Floyd, given the band's fondness for near-inaudible tape loops and Mason's astonishingly Roger Waters-like voice. Like such contemporaries as Gomez and Arnold, The Beta Band can leap from the Delta-blues influence of "Dry The Rain" or the mantra-like "She's The One" to the funky dub groove of "Monolith" and make the broad stylistic jumps look easy.
Reviews
Rolling Stone (2/4/99, p.63) - "...The Beta Band is making some of the most invigorating new music in Britain....there is something cleansing--a purity of spirit and a tripped-out glee--about the lava-flow tempo and insidiously catchy clutter of THE THREE EPS..." Entertainment Weekly (1/22-1/29/99, pp.100-101) - "...Using a thrift-shop's worth of sounds, from guitars and clip-hop beats to assorted blips and bird noises, the Betas are a roots band that know the value of a groove. THE THREE EPS is like an amble down a twisted country lane..." - Rating: A- Q (12/99, p.100) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q (6/00, p.64) - Ranked #74 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" - "...They share a passion for the great British outdoors and a musical outlook that defends its right to ramble. Thus the 'vibe' of dub and the looseness of indie dance..." CMJ (2/15/99, p.24) - "...augments its surreal brew with turntable mind tricks, Gregorian chants, out-of-phase ambient folk, and homespun sound effects.. The Beta Band makes art out of mind explosions..."
Number of discs
3
