The Soft Hearted Scientists have a great line on their new CD, The Bethesda EP.

It's about German children and what they sing on birthdays.

According to the North Walian band, they chirp "happy birthday" because it gladdens them that they were born because if they weren't they would never have known them.

"That kills me every time," sings the group's chief beardy weirdy, and indeed we're deep in the woods here.

The Soft Hearted Scientists are self-proclaimed psychedelic farmers furrowing their own brand of twinkle-twinkle pop.

There are plenty of 60s influences, a nod to the Beta Band and a healthy knowledge of finger patterns from folk music young and old.

If you don't mind your music a little twee around the edges then they're worth a look, and are certainly better than many bands from this end of Wales.

Brother Sister, from which the above lyric is taken, is a very tender ditty about a sister gone to teach English and seek a new life in Japan.

The very contemporary tale, which'll ring true for a lot of brothers and sisters, is all the more so for the cheery guitar and harp riffs which see the song through from beginning to end.

The Youngy Bony Bo follows it and with it The Soft Hearted Scientists leave reality at the kerb as they plunge further from the road.

A description of furry creatures living in woods, it's a bit cloying, a bit Teletubbies but a folksy chorus saves it from complete tedium.

The Haunted Song is a tune to march to and displays some stark similarities to the Beta Band.

Like that band, The Soft Hearted Scientists repeat vocal lines over and over while they build up sounds and instruments around it.

Think Hey Jude but covered in moss.

Technically they pull it off but like the fourth and final track, Many A Monster, and to a certain extent everything the band has done, you wonder whether they really mean it.

To call them contrived is perhaps to miss the point but you get the sense the Soft Hearted Scientists would like to be a bunch of whacked out loons like Gong but are in fact very ordinary folk trying very hard not to be.

Nice work if you can get it.

* For more info surf to www.softheartedscientists.com