rushed into constructing it in only four days, saying they intended it to be "an ambient… sound-piece. It’s really indulgent on our part, but I wanted to make it a musical story. In the same way Chill Out by The KLF is a story. So it sort of succeeds. It just needed more… conclusions. Rushed again." The bonus disc was eventually released officially alongside special editions of the album's 2018 remaster. Composition Musical style The Beta Band is an experimental, sonically complex, dense and detailed album. Unlike the band's previous EPs, which presented their varied genre influences in a less coarse way, the album is more abstract and beat-minded, fusing genres more abrasively, whilst being less influenced by folk music. Described by AllMusic's Jason Ankeny as "a brashly schizophrenic freak-out which weaves its way throughout the history of rock & roll," the album crosses a wide variety of musical ground which, in the words of CMJ New Music Monthly, makes it "hard to locate exactly where the foursome are coming from." Ankeny, describing the styles, said: "Pop, blues, folk, psychedelia, hip-hop -- they're all here, sometimes even colliding within the same song; the disc somehow sounds almost completely different with each successive listen, consistently revealing new layers and possibilities.” The ten songs on the album rely on a snippet of melody, often sung and played on acoustic guitar by Steve Mason, but surrounding his voice are not only guitars or drums but many other, more unusual instruments and techniques, including samples, xylophones, sleigh bells, hand claps, spoons, and a diversity of bird whistles, including a cuckoo, with its songs integrating numerous tape loops and offbeat breakbeats into what writer Ron Hart called the album's "ambient classic rock jams and textured pop melodies". The music is said to disregard melody and other examples of musical theory such as verses and choruses in favour a chaotic approach. Jonathan Perry of Rolling Stone, describing the tracks, said: As with prior albums, the band's early Pink Floyd influence is prominent throughout The Beta Band, although hip hop is said to be a more prominent influence on this record, with rapping, splicing and samples appearing prominently. Mason hoped, regardless of the "really obvious" criss-cross of styles on "The Beta Band Rap", the band's various influences throughout the rest of The Beta Band would sound "a bit more subtly involved". He also felt the record was