:: VHS or Beta - Night On Fire

VHS or Beta

I love this band’s moniker; VHS or Beta. It places them smack bang where they belong, right in 1985. The downside to the name is that it also implies the fickleness of life and death at the hands of technological favouritism. Beta just couldn’t cut it and VHS was a modern day Goliath, well at least until DVD recently emerged. In fact technology and popular music have that in common; one thing is always superseded by something better and more up to date, and it is always a race to see who can be the first to invade the public consciousness and claim the ‘innovation’ crown. VHS or Beta is no doubt a set of talented musicians who, as shown through their eclectic previous recordings, are able to shift musical genres and still sound authentic. The problem though on ‘Night on Fire’ is that, although they have achieved that neo-80’s alt-pop sound, they’ve been beaten to the punch by several others who do it better and with more originality - see Bloc Party, The Rapture, etc. ‘Night on Fire’ too often falls into cliché and, although it is an homage to a specific era, it has little of the underlying concerns of bands like The Cure and Echo and The Bunnymen whose electro-romantic sounds/themes grew out of a disaffection with Eighties uber-capitalism. There are definitely some great tracks here though. The title track is dance floor filler, ‘The Melting Moon’ possesses the depth and feeling its New Romantic leanings imply, and the instrumental closer ‘Irreversible’ is beautifully moving. The highlight though is the ecstatically mournful ‘Alive;’ a track that makes you want to pirouette frantically with joy and then collapse onto the floor in tears, wail, roll over, get up, shut up, glam up, and go out for a night of hedonism and debauchery. VHS or Beta shows moments of brilliance and if they’re able to capitalise on their talent and the strengths of some of the tracks on ‘Night on Fire’ they’ll survive the fickle fads of the music industry and have the longevity of VHS rather than the temporariness of Beta.