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Yet another of those obscure bands that recorded just one LP and then sadly vanished completely from the scene. The Human Beast was a short-lived young trio from Edinburgh, Scotland, which formed in the mid-1960s and was initially called Skin. The line-up that established itself by the end of the 1960s consisted of guitarist and singer Gillies Buchan, bassist and singer Edward Jones, and drummer John Ramsay. Thanks to the mediation of David McNiven (Bread, Love and Dreams), a friend of the group, they signed a contract with the major label Decca in 1970 as The Human Beast. They recorded their first and only LP, which was optimistically titled Volume One, in a single, twelve-hour recording session in London. It was produced by Ray Horricks, who also served as producer on all of Bread, Love and Dreams’ releases. McNiven also contributed several lyrics to the album, which was finally released in November 1970 and represents an astonishing heavy psychedelic rock debut.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of promotion by the record company, the LP sold extremely poorly, leading the band to disband shortly afterwards in disappointment. Their debut album is now considered a great rarity, both as an English and a German Decca original.
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