Beev Rations

File:Alan James, Beev Rations, 2019, I got love (Single, videoclip).jpg

Alan James performing for the single's videoclip of "I got love" (Beev Rations, 2019)

Beev Rations is an indie band based in Santander (Spain), created in 2016 by Alan James, a DIY Spanish artist, songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who is the unique official member from the beginning. Beev Rations (BR) has been seen as "the musical alter-ego of Alan James"​, while he refers to BR as a "one-man-band" and "an indie band within the genres of bedroom pop and roots rock".​ After an initial series of singles, the first album of BR's, an EP titled "Just try them", was released in December 2017.

Beev Rations' music

Beev Rations' music can be considered as a blending of different root genres and styles of Rock, mostly Folk, Country, Blues, R&B (especially Doo wop), Merseybeat and Psychedelia. The style changes in each BR's song and those roots alternate and combine in diverse ways across its discography, resulting in the eclectic and alternative sound that is perceptible in BR's songs. This conjunction of numerous musical genres has also been seen as a "kaleidoscopic and visionary multitude".

James was referred to as having "a loving flair for psych-tinged, country & western flavored folk jams".​ Although deeply influenced by root styles of rock, featuring vintage sound (especially from the 60's), it is also noticeable in his records the use of modern digital resources and techniques to produce them, making up contemporary arrangements, effects and lyrics. Through the listening of BR's songs, some usual characteristics can be observed: short duration (under three minutes, sometimes less than two); warm and slightly bluesy singing, with the counterpoint of vocal harmonies and choirs of two or three voices; medium tempos, with light drums, clean guitars (rhythm and lead) and acoustic bass; sometimes synthesized soft atmospheric phrases, effects or/and loops; lyrics frequently related with love, nature and own observations about life and reality, leaving also some humorous wink or joke (examples of it can be heard at the end of songs like "Good Wood", "The Bigger Tricker" or "The Way I Like").

Another distinctive aspect of its music is the "spritle songs". These are themes whose speed was deliberately accelerated in the mastering process, resulting in Alan's voice sounding sharper. The first of those was "The one I love" (2016), whose video clip shows an elf as the protagonist of the story. This way Alan developed the idea in the fall of 2018, to create an alter-band of goblins called The Spritles, characterized by a Mersey sound, vocal harmonies, a psychedelic touch and a mischievous point in lyrics and effects. Then, the singles "The way I like" (an alternate version of the single of 2016, of greater length) and "Still the Same" were released in 2018, in advance of the six-song EP "The Spritles", published in March 2019.

Review's reception

Although the heterogeneous nature of Beev Rations' music makes its songs hardly fit into specific genres or styles beyond the generality of indie, lo-fi pop, alternative or roots rock, it has aroused the interest from relevant digital media specialized in indie music reviews and broadcasting, both webzines and radio stations from USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Poland. This way, BR appears several times on Hype Machine (USA), where the songs "Why don't you?", "The bigger tricker" and "Mystic Lover"​ can be heard. This last song was praised by Glen Fisher, conductor of the Doo Wop Revival program (WJCT Music, USA), referring to it as "excellent work", in a comment posted directly under the videoclip, at the BR's official YouTube channel.​ Together with "The bigger tricker", both themes garnered enthusiastic reviews from Barry Gruff, Irish influencer of indie music, who devoted them two articles on his website, in 2018.​

Among the various publications that have featured or shared the music of Beev Rations, the following should be highlighted: "Why don't you?" was included by Adobe and Teardrops (USA) in the last of its 2017 playlists.​ In the UK, the same theme was presented as well by Mike Mihalas in his program "The Mike Cast" (KOR Radio​, Somer Valley FM and Get Ready to Rock Radio),​ just like "What's that ?", "Good Wood" and "The Bigger Tricker", during 2017. Other songs like "Hot Burrito #1"​ (cover of a Gram Parsons song), "The one I love"​ and "Dance with me" (unreleased demo)​ were put on rotation in KOR Radio that year. The English broadcaster Ross Beaty shared the songs "Mushrooms #8" (2019) and "Reflections" (2020) in his "It’s Psychedelic Baby podcast" (#37 and #44), published on "It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine".​ In Canada, "Hot Burrito # 1", "Your inner sprite", "Dance with me"​, "Oh Janice", Freequency (I'm Here Now) and Shake And Spray were presented between 2018-2020 by broadcaster Andy Gronberg on his program "Andy's Attic Radio" (CIVIL Radio).​ In Pola Retradio (Poland) was introduced "Ajnaj Floroj" (released in 2019), a song in Esperanto language, which music Alan James composed upon two poems written by the Spanish esperantist Miguel Guitiérrez Adúriz. A note about this song can be read in an article, written also in Esperanto and published by the Polish radio website. Another article written by the Italian musician, producer and videomaker Gabriele Filippi, reviewing the single "Oh Janice (And Nothing Happened)", was published in the indie webzine Nova Music blog in January 2020. In February, the same song was included in the selection of ten songs for the Lollipop playlist, published by the French webzine La Fessée Musicale. The single "Feeling Place" was reviewed in March by the German music promoter, journalist and musician Philipp Gottfried, in the music magazine She Wolf. In May, Comeherefloyd, indie music magazine from the USA, shared through a post the single "My Vow". In July, the single "Freequency (I'm Here Now)" was shared by the Canadian blog "From The Strait", through a Spotify playlist called "Limited Time Offer". This song had radio airplay in the "Andy's Attic Radio" podcast, also from Canada. In November, "Beef Ration #69 (Cosmic Melodrama)" was shared by From the Strait, within its Spotify playlist "On Your Radar". In December, the Italian music producer and influencer Matthew S dedicated a post to "Just Wondering", which was also shared by the Spanish Lucas Toledo—also a music producer and influencer—and by the Belgian influencer Barbara Fava, within her Spotify playlist "Country And Americana Love Vol.3". The same song was used as background music by Upmostravel, British influencer who shared it in an Instagram story, in December.

Discography

LPs, EPs and Singles

• What's that? / The One I love (Double single, 2016)
• Hot burrito #1 (I'm your toy) (Single, 2017)
• Good Wood (Single, 2017)
• Why don't You? (Single, 2017)
• The Bigger Tricker (Single, 2017)
• Just Try Them (EP, 2017)
• Mushrooms (Single, 2018)
• Mystic Lover (Single, 2018)
• Here comes the Sunshine (Free single, 2018)
• Darth Father (Some parts of me) (Single, 2018)
• The Way I Like (Single, 2018)
• Still the Same (Single, 2018)
• The Spritles (EP, 2019)
• Ajnaj Floroj (Single, 2019)
• Watching the birds fly (Single, 2019)
• I Got Love / Dance with me (Double single, 2019)
• True Nature (EP, 2019)
• Reflections (Single, 2019)
• Oh Janice (And Nothing Happened) (Single, 2019)
• The Essential (LP, 2019)
• Feeling Place (Single, 2020)
• My Vow (Single, 2020)
• Freequency (I'm Here Now) (Single, 2020)
• Free Twin Horses (EP, 2020)
• Shake And Spray (Single, 2020)
• Bath, Bed And Mush (Single, 2020)
• Just Wondering / Beef Ration #69 (Cosmic Melodrama) (Double single, 2020)

References

This article "Beev Rations" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Beev Rations. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---