Release Date:   31^st January 2020

Label:  Occultation Recordings

Formats: CD, DL, vinyl

An all-encompassing set of six songs that see a merger of the melodic, garage band rock and roll and the psychedelic with a dose of laid back atmospheric strings. All courtesy of the four-piece beat combo collective known as Beat Hotel.

It’s a timely return for a band founded on the Paul Pascoe / Arash Torabi pairing – “the occasional manifestation of an idea for a band” – who’ve been on the same page since being teenage indie  kids in Plymouth in the late Eighties.

Influences and background collide as the quartet have lent their talents to The June Brides, The Weather Prophets, Lolita Storm and Mudlow amongst others as well as being well connected to some  significant players in the music world (no names dropped).

So, Beat Hotel plays host to five original numbers written by Paul Pascoe – fuelled by an unexpected creative surge following a sudden end to a relationship. Perhaps one of those cases of suffering for your art and ‘every cloud….’ etc. Interestingly, there’s no obvious or immediate hint of bitterness or biting  vitriol; the result, a surprisingly positive and upbeat defiance in the face of adversity.

That’s not to say that the songs lack bite. There’s a swagger and a fuzzy grind to Low Slung Loser and  as the songs pass, you feel that they’ve genuinely warmed up, finding themselves a couple of shekels short of a sneer on Heat Light Fire.

We also get The Wishing Stones’ Beat Girl where  Arash steps up on lead vocal. It’s a brief diversion that offers an arrangement of string laden sweetness (“you got me beat girl, swept off my feet girl”) that’s less apparent on the main theme of energetic guitar pop that bursts from Feel It.

As a final touch you can acknowledge a touch of realistic and tongue-in-cheeky self-depreciation on their  ‘almost’ album of songs of “love, near-death and the worst aspects of ourselves,” and “a tribute to the awesome power of getting shit done!” Amen to that.

There’s a launch gig on 29^th January at the Hope & Ruin, Brighton. Details here.

Listen to Feel It here:

Beat Hotel online:   Facebook / Bandcamp