Usuario:SunnToneS/Taller

Beev Rations

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, unique official member from the beguinning. Beev Rations (BR) has been seen as "the musical alter-ego of Alan James"​, while he reffers BR as a "one-man-band" and "an indie band within the genres of bedroom pop and roots rock".​ Recording in his home studio, producing and self-editing his records, videos and art, James is a DIY spanish artist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and singer. The band's debut was a double single containing the songs "What's that?" and "The one I love", in november 2016. The first album, an EP tittled "Just try them", was published in november 2017.

Alan created a multidisciplinary artistic project called Sunntones, whose musical part is Beev Rations. Sunntones appears in the URL of the official BR website, in the credits of the videos, on the album covers and also as the signature in press notes and presentations in album booklets.

Beev Rations' music

Beev Rations' music can be considered as a blending of different root-genres and styles of Rock, which would be mostly Folk, Country, Blues, R&B (specially 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, through the particular Alan's musical approach, that -in this sense- could be described as binder, synthetic and experimental. All of it resulting in an alternative sound (non-mainstream) that is perceptible in BR's songs.

James has been reffered as having "a loving flair for psych-tinged, country & western flavoured folk jams".​ Although deeply influenced by root-styles of rock (featuring vintage sound, specially from the 60's), it is noticeable in his records the use of modern digital resources and technics to produce them, making up contemporary arrangements, effects and lyrics. Alan's themes are often emotionaly intense, singing with warm and heartfelf voice and the counterpoint of colorful harmonies and two or three voice choirs. Instrumental tracks are usually relaxed medium-tempos, with light drums, clean guitars and warm bass, sometimes adding synthetized soft atmospherical phrases, effects and loops. Lyrics are frequently related with love, nature and own observations about life and reality, leaving also some humoristic 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").

Beev Ration's songs rarely reach three minutes. 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 lively and sweet Mersey sound, colorful vocal harmonies, a psychedelic touch and a mischievous point in lyrics and effects. Then, the singles "The way I like" (an alternative version of the single of 2016, of greater length) and "Still the Same" were released in 2018, in advance of the six songs EP "The Spritles", published in march, 2019.​

Review's reception

While BR's music sounds alternative and stands outside the mainstream, it also has aroused the interest from popular digital media specialized in indie music reviews and broadcasting, both websites and radio stations from various countries. This way, Beev Rations appeares several times on the Hype Machine website (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 video clip, at the Beev Rations official YouTube channel.​ Together with "The bigger tricker", both themes garnered very good reviews from Barry Gruff, irish influencer of indie music, who devoted them two articles on his website, in 2018.​.

"Why don't you?" had been included by Adobe and Teardrops (USA) in the last of his 2017 playlists.​ In UK, the same theme was presented aswel by Mike Mihalas in his program "The Mike Cast" (KOR Radio​ and Somer Valley FM),​ 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 in 2019 the song "Mushrooms #8" in his "It’s Psychedelic Baby podcast #37", published on "It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine", an accredited site of psychedelic rock.​ In Canada, first "Hot Burrito # 1" (2018) and then "Your inner sprite" and "Dance with me"​ (2019) were presented by broadcaster Andy Gronberg on his program "Andy's Attic Radio" (CIVIL Radio).​ And in Pola Retradio (Poland) was introduced "Ajnaj Floroj" (released in 2019), a song in Esperanto language, which music Alan James composed upon two poems writen by the spanish esperantist Miguel Guitiérrez Adúriz. An article about this song, writen also in Esperanto, was also published by the polish radio website.​

Discography

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)