For those of you not following the plot, The Beta Band is currently operating in two factions: King Biscuit Time, which is just Steve Mason, and The Aliens. During the 3 EPs era, Gordon Anderson (Lone Pigeon) was an active member of the High Fidelity Scottish collective, but was forced to leave due to mental health issues. After the ironically titled Heroes To Zeroes limped onto shelves in 2004 and what was left of the band fizzled, Steve decided to go and focus on his solo career and Gordon took his place, thus making The Aliens something of a reunion project. However, sadly, this is not The Beta Band II or the Gamma Band, and the drought of nothing remotely as good as the old Beta Band being released since 2001’s Hot Shots II continues.
The first Aliens EP, Alienoid Starmonica, came pretty close though, capturing the divine comedy, lo-fi psychedelia, and concept album pacing that made us love them back in the late nineties. I have a feeling Gordon was given more reign in the first EP, ‘cause Astronomy For Dogs, while featuring a couple of the same tracks, is a lot cleaner, brighter, and almost sterile in the production department. It sounds like John McLean and Robin Jones got a bit antsy with Gordon’s garage leanings and locked themselves away with the Pro Tools masters till it came out sparkling.
Their trademark songwriting is still there, like on the uncharacteristically lovelorn “She Don’t Love Me No More,” and a few tracks here still smoothly bridge the gap between basement electronica and café indie, like the progressive house number “Rox” and the epic cautionary tale “Glover,” but the feeling here is they were trying for The Beatles and got Electric Light Orchestra. They made an honest attempt for classic and ended up with merely decent. It should be noted, though, that this album is much more artistically satisfying and passionately entertaining than Heroes To Zeroes. If nothing else, Astronomy For Dogs should be heralded as a step in the right direction after six long years of wandering. While it remains doubtful they will ever come to deliver on the righteous promise shown by The 3 EPs, they still produce enough moments to keep fans hanging around.
More about: The Aliens
