By JOHN BENSON

June 7, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a band named The Van Allen Belt has created its own complex universe of music and sounds.

For those folks who aren’t astrophysicists, the actual Van Allen Belt is basically made up of radiation belts featuring high-energy particles held captive by the magnetic influence of the Earth.

As convoluted as that definition may sound, here’s what Van Allen Belt singer Tamar Kamin has to say about her band’s musical intentions on its latest studio effort, “Superpowerfragilis: Or How I Learned To Stop Caring And Love The Drug”:

“The last album was pseudo-politically oriented and psychedelic nostalgic pop,” Kamin said. “We still pretty much keep with that, but the next album, ‘Heaven on a Branch,’ is a little more down to earth and feeling a little more realistic and less politically charged.”

Among the new songs The Van Allen Belt is playing are the spacey “Busy Bee” and the theatrical “Clouds.” Both of which could get stage time when the outfit makes its Youngstown debut Saturday at the Lemon Grove.

So far, the chameleonic band has garnered a wide range of comparisons from composer John Barry to Welsh singer Shirley Bassey.

Within the rock world, Kamin’s vocals stray into a Grace Slick’s Jefferson Airplane vibe. She said one critic even had the audacity to say The Van Allen Belt was “like The Mamas and the Papas joined Crass in Wu Tang’s yard.” The former stems from the group’s 1920s or 1930s lounge-singer sound, while the latter involves its modern psychedelic samples.

“Actually, I feel like people are more accepting because we’re so different,” Kamin said. “We’ve been picked for metal, acoustic and blues bills. People pretty much like us more than if we were a very described genre. People will put us anywhere. It’s really nice they’re willing to do that.”

What’s interesting about The Van Allen Belt live is they’ve accomplished all of these sounds without the use of guitar.

“We’re not able to pull it off yet,” Kamin said. “I feel like when we have more time and we can sit on a stage for a while and spread out even more, then we’ll be able to get the guitar in there, but we’re not quite ready yet.”

Therein lies the enigmatic Van Allen Belt, which took roughly a decade to evolve from local band to regional act. Now Kamin said the outfit, with a wide array of sounds held together by its gravitational pull of psychedelic music, is ready to spread its wings and venture out into the universe in search of its destiny. That may sound a bit grandiose, but this group isn’t your run-of-the-mill local band, or at least not in their own minds.

“Before, we didn’t really feel like we were ready to do a full-on tour, but we’ve got the live shows to a point where we’re really proud with it and satisfied by it,” Kamin said. “We feel like the rest of the world should be too, so we’re ready to go.”