Beefus B - Journey Through the Unfamiliar (2024)

Oh it's good. Oh it's so very good. You already knew that of course. This is the sixth Beefus B record, and as you've rightly come to expect, it's packed with wall to wall electronic goodies.

The stellar opener, 'A Distant Galaxy Message' features a wonderful kaleidoscopic piano excursion, energetic baselines and an ever-progressing series of musical passages that manage to pack a heck of a lot of melody and personality into... well I guess five and a half minutes isn't that short, but it's a neat trick nonetheless. The message in this case would be Beefus B is back and better than ever, but you already suspected that.
'Evolving Naturally' features the most laid back two minutes of Beefusian music you've ever heard, followed by five minutes of more traditional beat-heavy fare. Excellent as ever; it benefits beautifully from the two minute mark transformation. I guess the title makes perfect sense! When this one gets going, it goes so hard.

'Balls of Funk', aside from being an objectively hilarious title is a punchy and focused ball of... well... funk! Skittering beats and bursts of beeps and blips, lovingly assembled, what more could one want?

Title track time! Airhorn! 'Journey Through the Unfamiliar', a big seven minute beast, features lightning fast percussion, a deep and airy atmospheric collection of whooshes and chirps, with a fun stringed instrument of mysterious origin plucking away prettily throughout the piece, and what a piece it is! A perfect centrepiece to an extremely sonically rich album, rife with colour.

The unusual percussion of 'Expand you Scope' works nicely given its place in the album. We've had a couple of musical standard departures from the likes of the opening two minutes of 'Evolving Naturally' and the break-neck speed of the title track's percussion, but all within the vein of what goodies one might expect from a Beefus B record. So what a perfect time to switch things up and remind us that this guy knows how to experiment, and how to tastefully select successful experiments to show the world. The seemingly eastern-influenced melody dances deftly between the beats and, coupled with the leftfield beats creates a truly spectacular aural spectacle.

'Chaos Manifested' is a fun title, and presumably refers to the music, yet I'd argue the previous tune had a fair bit more going on in terms of unconventional textures and experimentation. That is not to say however that this is a lesser piece. Far from it! The woody taps and ever so slightly melancholic melody gel together really nicely. The following 'In Your Own Universe' is a fantastic choice for a penultimate track, and slots in so nicely after a series of songs with ultra-speedy percussion. A simple 4/4 beat gives the melody of 'Universe' space to breathe and expand in a delightfully psychedelic way. I'm a big fan of the traditional Beefusian sound, though I certainly wouldn't object to an entire record of these kinds of sounds.

It's not like the last track immediately snaps back to convention. It's a sort of mid-tempo arrangement, slightly slower than most of the record, save for 'Universe', again, allowing his pretty melodies to shine brighter than ever. The percussion, as ever, is wonderfully danceable, and the music sounds more colourful that ever. There's this bit near the end when the music just sort of dies out after a solo organ piece... then the horns start up again and everything goes golden. You can see why he chose this as the closer, it's just so heavy with happy vibrations.

You could say this about the entire record really. It feels like a growing, living organic thing, which isn't as easy a trick to pull of as you'd think. Even if you don't realise you're doing it! It's a rewarding listening experience that gets better on repeat listens.