Black Gold, the new album from ex-Beta Band frontman Steve Mason, is released to a horde of music critics and psychedelic experimental indie-rock fans rubbing their palms together in excitement. With The Beta Band, Mason created a new direction in indie music, marrying wistful and melancholy pop harmonies with curious drum machine and sampler tinkerings, sped up and reversed voices, deep ambient soundscapes with some really weird influences - second proper album Hot Shots II, arguably their best, was produced by R&B man C-Swing and hooked the acoustic strummings and Super Furries-esque vocal melodies with dancehall, electro and hip-hop influences. As the band dissolved in a sea of its own hype, Mason began putting King Biscuit Time EPs on the sly, and this is the first album-length manifestation.

It's precisely what you expect, to be honest - CIAM15 marries a mellow voice and wistful musical melancholy with some deep analogue bass farting and a ragga MC, Impossible Ride features backwards-looped accordions on top of the guitar strums, 808 handclaps and sub bass, single Kwangchow features a decidedly Beta Band repeated chorus - "over and over and over again" - on top of some lovely descending acoustic guitar and muted drumming, and All Over You marries West Coast blue-eyed country with slow desert rock and Mason's heartfelt lament. There's nothing here which really shows any progress from what The Beta Band were doing - you'd be forgiven for thinking that they had reformed under a different name - which leads us to think that maybe it's one for the real fans; however, it's an accomplished enough album and worth a listen if you already know and like the sound.