Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It may be an old adage but the music that played a huge part in defining the latter half of the 1960s is a gift that keeps giving with size ten boots, smartly dressed in crisp suits and a movement that refuses to lie down and take it easy as it approaches middle age. The Mod age that was captured so sweetly and wonderfully by the distinct sound of groups The Who, The Smoke, The Kinks and The Small Faces continues to live, breathe fire and spread its wings over each generation that follows in its wake.
Greenock’s The Beat Movement take up a mantle that in the 1970s saw The Jam and The Purple Hearts follow suit in what had been thought of a genre that had started to fizzle out after those original heady days. Like all great music genres though, the sound never truly fades away and disappears, it just goes into hiding until someone comes along with guts and a swagger in which to make sure it keeps fresh and vital. For the 21st century Mark Mclean, Lyall Mooney, Chris McEwan and Mark Heron, the four men behind The Beat Movement, look like being a leading contenders, especially with their superb E.P., The Warning, firmly held in their grasp.
If the genre needed freshening up, which to be fair, no matter the era or band it still sounds as it was intended to, cool, involved and sophisticatedly modern, then The Beat Movement with songs such as Roll Over, Can’t Let You Go, Keep On Keepin’ On and the blistering acoustic version of I’m Alright will see them as early frontrunners, the title track of the E.P. will confirm that position with its stonking adeptness and agility.
If Progressive Rock can have a 21st Century renaissance then no one can doubt the sincerity of the revitalisation of the Mod movement that is very much under way.
Ian D. Hall