On The Floor! - Live at Common, Manchester

Steve Mason

Domino, UK

Compiled from a huge pile of Steve Mason produced demos, The Beta Band first received widespread attention with their "The Three E.P.'s" in 1998. Quite ahead of it's time, it predated much of what would later be labeled freak-folk and, looking back, sounds like a pastoral Scottish preamble to what folks from Animal Collective to Devendra Banhart would later take to great heights. As for Steve Mason, it took him some twelve years, one band break-up, a pile of aliases and successful therapy for depression later to finally release a first album under his given name. Working with Richard X (of Annie, Roisin Murphy and Sugababes fame and a declared fan), his music is at peace with past regrets, wearing sadness with a certain sense of pride and combining crafty songwriting with eerie atmospheres. In a sense, it seems like he has found a rather grown up version of the inventive easiness of the early Beta Band tracks. Which doesn't mean he won't get silly on a mixer, as he does with this set from Common, Manchester.