Steve Mason - Boys Outside

Reclusive U.K. alt-pop pioneer Steve Mason is hardly a household name but his status as cult underground wunderkind may change dramatically with the May 4 release of Boys Outside (Domino), the first album he's released under his own name. Co-founding the pioneering outfit The Beta Band in the mid-90's, Mason was one of the first (along with Beth Orton, William Orbit and others) to combine electronics and trip-hop rhythms with traditional, often acoustic songwriting: a mix that became known as "folktronica". After the demise of the critically-acclaimed Betas in '04, Mason began creating his own mostly beat-driven music under the pseudonyms King Biscuit Time and Black Affair, but in planning his new project had a stylistic change of heart.

"I suddenly realised I was bored of pissing around with drum machines, and all that stuff," he says. "Just that immediate thing, where you can actually perform a song with a guitar...I’d forgotten it was possible...You can actually create some really beautiful magic with just that instrument and a voice." Despite the stylistic shift, Mason and noted pop/dance producer Richard X worked on the new songs, taking the elements to their core. “I wanted it to be like you could strip away the top half of it," he reflects, "and you’d be left with an R&B-type hi-tech backing track. But then, you could listen to the other half, and it would be a song, with vocals, acoustic guitar, piano – the traditional ingredients." Boys Outside's ten superlative tracks are led with the brilliantly dub-influenced "All Comes Down", a spare and haunting preview of some truly special things to come. UPDATE: U.S Release now June 22.

Myspace  Artist Site

Steve Mason - "All Come Down" (from the album Boys Outside)

Steve Mason - "Boys Outside" (demo version)