Beta Hector - Sunbeam Insulin (2011)

01. Hexagon
02. Sleepwalking
03. Payback (Sunbeam Version)
04. Oracle Bones
05. Invasion
06. Trust Me
07. Super Bionic
08. Creepin’ (Insulin Version)
09. Thousand Yard Square
10. In My Skin
11. Jupiter Mission
12. Morning Train
13. The Next Level

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Out on 12th September on Tru Thoughts. A mixture of heavy drums and psychedelic electronic sonics, the album brings a diverse selection of soulful, bittersweet songs and soundtracks, with five vocalists including UK soul queen Dionne Charles and LA MC Shane Hunter.

The first single from the ‘Sunbeam Insulin’ album is “Jupiter Mission”, out on 8th August. A disco-inflected track voiced by Hill’s sister Jo, with a distinct sci-fi bent – the lyrics are about an intergalactic incident featuring a character called ‘serial no.815’, and the music was made to suit the vocals and the story using software synths, bass guitar, and percussion. Simon Hill says: “I’ll never forget hearing my younger sister Jo rapping along with Debbie Harry on ‘Rapture’ when I was DJing at a house party about 10 years ago. I remember thinking “cool, one day I’ll use her on a throwback disco rap tune.”

The retro-futuristic space-age feel pervades through the album. The Afrobeat and dubstep-inspired opener “Hexagon”, that nods to Flying Lotus with its oddball 6/4 rhythm and analogue synth recording, slides into the eerie “Sleepwalking” which pairs singer Sarah Gardner’s crystal clear voice with a dark instrumental track, inspired by Portishead, Broadcast and the Heliocentrics. A shiny new version of “Payback” features, with the drums re-recorded through ribbon mics, then looped, and the addition of guitar, horns and bongos – and finally, Dionne re-recorded her vocal with even more sass; there’s also a more psychedelic album version of “Creepin’”. Elsewhere, on “Oracle Bones” and “Thousand Yard Stare” you’ll hear the unique lyrical style and ideas of MC Shane Hunter, who found Beta Hector on Myspace (remember that?) and a mutual love of each other’s work was born. “Trust Me” brings ‘60s Ipanema vibes, and Dionne Charles shows her soft side in “Morning Train”, a tender, soulful lament. Album closer “The Next Level” is a tribute to the late Ollie Minkley, who played percussion with Baby Charles (among other great bands including The Quantic Soul Orchestra); deeply saddened by his passing in 2010, Hill remembered about an old Baby Charles track on which Ollie had played, which hadn’t been used and, he says “it was a pleasure to find and hear Ollie’s cowbell and conga parts. I built the music around his percussion, and it just evolved into a kind of seventies kung-fu movie soundtrack, which I think Ollie would have liked.”