Artist: Lynden Williams
Title: I’m not a beast
File: Rock/Progressive
Streaming and for download now via this link
Decades after its release, the rock psych debut ‘Volume One’ by Scottish band The Human Beast gets a fresh airing from the man who could have been their lead vocalist.
Lynden Williams (who went on to front Ian Gillan-produced and -managed hard rockers, Jerusalem) has assembled a cast of top flight progressive rock artists in Dave Meros (Spocks’ Beard, Iron Butterfly), Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard, Big Big Train), Ollie Hannifan (Mister Kanish) and Martin Orford (IQ, Jadis) to reshape the album’s original songs into the prog-friendly sounds they have become renowned for in Williams’s alter egos, Zorbonauts.
In the spirit of the time democracy ruled, and whilst two thirds of the three piece band, Skin (who would go on to become The Human Beast, and release their only album in 1970), were in favour of Williams joining them, a solitary voice thought that they were doing fine just as they were, leading Williams to join Jerusalem a year after ‘Volume One’s release.
Williams’s homage to the songs and how they could have been revs things up considerably. The album’s short running time back in the day is boosted here with a cover of a period song in Golden Earring’s “Are You Receiving Me”
Described at the time by music critics as ‘electro-flagellation’, ‘Volume One’s return as Williams’s heart-felt declaration, ‘I’m not a beast’ is a beautifully-played, highly entertaining and a far more commercial take on the fad for covering other bands’ entire albums.
Says Williams: “I thought it would make much more sense to go ‘a bit off the beaten track’, instead of jumping onto the usual suspects’ bandwagons.”
He has delivered in spades.
Tracks
- Appearance is Everything, Style Is a Way of Living
- Reality Presented as an Alternative To Destruction
- Maybe Someday
- Mystic Man
- Circle of the Night
- Naked Breakfast
- Brush With The Midnight Butterfly
- Are You Receiving Me (bonus track)