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This Scottish quartet’s musical roots lie in the minimalist drones of such German bands as Can and Amon Duul, and the fractured folk of mid-’60s iconoclasts the Holy Modal Rounders and Incredible String Band. Unlike so many contemporary English bands that strenuously attempt to recapture the musical mannerisms of their ‘60s forebears, the Beta Band scrambles up styles and sounds into startling new shapes. It’s early yet, but this album--a compilation of the quartet’s three British EPs--should rank as one of the most venturesome of ’99.

“The Three E.P.’s” blurs distinctions between avant-pop whimsy, electronic dance music textures and groove-driven jams. More conventional tracks such as “Dry the Rain” and “I Know” take their time to gain momentum, but their ambling, scruffy casualness is hard to resist. Other tracks take risks by cramming lots of ideas into one composition. “The House Song” starts out as an a cappella vocal round, then flows into an incessant bass-drum beat and finally resolves itself as a funky instrumental blowout. It should be a mess, but like so much of “The Three E.P.’s,” it has its own wonderfully warped internal logic.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.