STEVE MASON

Without much fanfare, Steve Mason, one of the Britpop generation’s few genuinely brilliant and original songsmiths, has been delivering on the promise of The Beta Band’s ‘The 3 EP’s’ – the masterpiece which introduced his extraordinary talent to the world.

The groundbreaking recordings on ‘The Three EP’s’, which were compiled 12 years ago from Mason’s very first releases, had a massive impact on the UK pop landscape and beyond, quite literally altering the way music was made, bringing a fresh, playful, genre-busting spirit to the deployment of new technology and traditional instruments. Thereafter, The Beta Band, led by Mason, struggled manfully beneath the weight of expectation. After they split up in ’04, Steve went to ground in his native Fife, firing off wonderfully unconventional records under a series of pseudonyms – most prominently, King Biscuit Time and Black Affair.

In a Mike Yarwood “And this is me...” type development, however, Steve’s latest album, ‘Boys Outside’, will appear under his own name, because, he says, he’s had enough of all the aliases, and because, more than ever in his life, he’s comfortable in his own skin. Also, he’s proud of these ten songs, whose sparse, haunting arrangements bespeak economy, maturity and focus. ‘Boys Outside’ is fully the equal of ‘The Three EP’s’, packed with inventively sculpted sounds and sublime melodies, and shot through with a rare emotional honesty.

Once finished in the autumn of 2009 the album found its way to Laurence Bell at Domino who, impressed with the record, immediately signed Steve on a publishing deal. Within weeks Laurence had become so enamoured by the 10-tracks he also offered to release the record on the Domino imprint Double Six Records.