Beaty Heart - Mixed Blessings

Mixed Blessings is a much-needed flare, lighting up the short distance out of spring and into festival season. With bands like tUnE-yArDs on the radio and Vampire Weekend conducting the clouds away before them, apparently what beckons people into British summertime is jaunty afrobeat.

Written in the depths of winter, it’s hard to picture Beaty Heart recording what will surely be a festival staple in a soundproof box, but perhaps that’s why Mixed Blessings evokes such an intense desire to be outside. Like being in a muddy field with outdoor music, there is a kind of escapism in their trippy chants and left-field approach to psychedelica that’s hard to match. Edging inevitably into hippie territory, the band delves into a kaleidoscopic haze of joyful percussive beats and bouncy vocals as they look to distract listeners from the mundane in thirteen tracks. As they explain, “By us making this weird fruity album, we have the best fun ever writing and playing these songs. When we do, everything else that is real and that sucks about life is shoved to the side for a little while. Hopefully it will serve the same purpose for other people too.”

It does hold attention in places, with opener “Banana Bread” being a strong lead and setting out from the off what the band are about - its jangling harmonies flit around tribal bongos more times than a shaman at the stone circle. There are other hints to their experimental vibe in “Katnute’s Comin’ Round”, “Greetings To Eblis” and “Yadwigha’s Theme”, but where the band strike the right balance is on single “Seafood”. An energising mantra, its jaunty hook is unforgivably catchy. “Kinder” strays into the bizarre in places with its retro synth production, but its repetitive nature is still strangely hypotonic. In the slowly rousing “Lekka Freakout”, the band show again they can inject a beat that in time expands into something much fuller.

Although Mixed Blessings does feel fluid, like a sprawling sea of tents at dawn, there isn’t much organisation in its structure. That might be reflective of all the experimentation but if you like music mind bending this will prove interesting fodder. Beaty Heart have clearly waited for the opportune moment, having sprung up over the years with the odd EP or artsy video, but with Mixed Blessings their walkabout has finally produced. Who knew jungle would be so massive?