Volume 1

Human Beast | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 18, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 1970
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sunbeam Records
• ASIN: B000YNEEH8
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,932 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mystic Man

2. Appearance Is Everything, Style Is a Way of Living

3. Brush with the Midnight Butterfly

4. Maybe Someday

5. Reality Presented as an Alternative

6. Naked Breakfast

7. Circle of the Night

Editorial Reviews

The music of this young Edinburgh trio was described in 1969 as "electro-flagellation," a phrase that aptly describes their vicious, Eastern-inflected guitar lines, pounding bass and frenetic percussion. Taped in a single twelve-hour stint in London that December and released in 1970 on Decca, their sole album stands as one of the most distinctive and unsettling pieces of rock music ever recorded. Issued here with their full participation, their story -- an enigma for decades -- is finally told for the first time in an accompanying 16-page booklet, packed with previously-unseen photographs, making it an essential purchase for all fans of heavy psychedelic rock and roll.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent, December 28, 2009

By 

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber Print DJ ... (Mahwah, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Volume 1 (Audio CD)

This is pretty heavy wha wha acid rock from Human Beast. Lots of dark psych here and some avant-gaurd flourishes. Lots of deep drums and spacey textures.

Human Beast are not totally unique among the more spacey end of hard rock from the psychadelic era.

But hey are very good at what they do, and if you like these heavy textures and good, psyched out guitar, you can't go wrong with this album.

Would have fit right in with any of the top Vertigo bands.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark HEAVY Psyche, October 29, 2009

By 

Aron D. Rush "missouri reb" (Cross Timbers, Mo usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Volume 1 (Audio CD)

This is heavy rock, influenced by Cream and Hendrix. The sound is dark and the musicians are good. The songs have their weak points, but this is a very good album. The simple but heavy bass lines set squarely at the bottom, and the wah wah guitar and Baker/Moon style drums go all over the place on top. Heavy riffs at times. Well worth your time and money. Great liner notes written by the band.

Added 6/11/10. I just wanted to add that if this band was given 4 or 5 days to record this instead of just 1, this would probably be a classic. It gets better the more you listen.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER - AND BREATHTAKINGLY DISMAL..., August 9, 2011

By 

donkey_shot (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Volume 1 (Audio CD)

I was lent a cd copy of human beast`s first (and only) record, "volume one" by a friend. I read the liner notes which include lengthy accounts by all three original members: they all agree on the dismal quality of most compositions, the gruesome circumstances of the recording (the drummer forgot his cymbals in scotland and had to make do with a hi-hat only! the whole record had to be done in 12 hours!), as well as the band`s questionable technical abilities.

unfortunately, I have to agree with the assessment of the band members; this is truly a dismal example of a "highly sought-after psych collector`s item" - and stunning evidence of why many lesser-known bands of the 60s remained unknown - and unfortunately, quite rightly so!