Beta Band : Squares

Hmmm, sounds familiar this. Rings a few bells. Where have I heard this before? Oh, only about FIVE BLOODY BILLION TIMES on about A HUNDRED DIFFERENT RECORDS in THE PAST THREE HOURS! It's that sample of the bunch of hippies deciding to have a bit of a kip beneath the flowers, being discovered underneath those flowers by Portishead's string section and being bludgeoned brutally to death in a hail of angry violins, presumably for trespassing. You may remember it from recent singles by I Monster, Skinny, Bathtub Of Evisceration, TWAAANGGG!, The Ging-Gang-Goolie Girls and Showaddywaddy, among many others.

So for Beta Band to have a second stab at releasing it after cancelling its original release last summer must mean that Steve Mason and his band of merry monks either a) believe they've made the definitive version, despite this essentially being the I Monster record with more monks on, or b) found themselves lumbered with a warehouse full of the things that were too expensive to burn.

Whichever, it's blasted bad luck that 'Squares' finally comes out in the same week that Medicine use exactly the same sample on their 'Apes Shall Not Kill Apes' single. What are the chances, eh?

Mark Beaumont