This week Parallax View recommends for your listening pleasure Chemistry Is What We Are the debut offering from London four-piece Simian. If you find much of the current mainstream music scene dull and formulaic this ambitious, uncategorisable record may just be what you're looking for. They have been described in some quarters as the 'english Air' although I have to say I wouldn't have made that comparison myself, the nearest reference point I would give would be the first 3 EPs by The Beta Band with their combination of harmonised vocals over spaced-out beats. Special mention should also be given to the album's cover, featuring a St.Bernhard with a sheep's head, which arguably hints at the hybrid nature of the music inside. If that all sounds very experimental I should also point out that this record has some great walloping tunes on it - 'One Dimension' and 'Mr. Crow' in particular will get you whistling in no time. Go on, you owe it to yourself to investigate what Sleaze Nation called 'psychedelic electro-soul music for daydream believers'.

Did somebody mention The Beta Band? Oh, that was me, wasn't it? Perhaps should also point out then that they've also released a new record this month - Hot Shots 2 and bloody good it is too. But there's the problem. Because The Beta Band are one of the few British bands that I've got a real gut feeling could have a truly great album in them. Admittedly, their latest is a vast improvement on their half-assed debut and can perhaps consider itself unlucky not to have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but I still feel that they've got even better in them, hard-to-please bastard that I am...