FEATURING THE HUMAN HOST AND THE HEAVY METAL KIDS

If nothing else one can at least get a sense of how far music has progressed in the forty years since a couple of psychedelically-bent poster artists decided to pretend they could play music and put together this weird thing. Needless to say this isn’t what you’d consider very high-brow music, but at least the ‘high’ part applies. Fortunately the studio backing band (referred to on the album as “The Heavy Metal Kids”) were a fledging band of journeymen who for the most part were the same guys who would end up becoming the more legitimate rock band known as Spooky Tooth. One of them (Luther Grosvenor) would also end up for a time in Mott the Hoople while Greg Ridley would land a gig with Humble Pie. One of the fun things about proto-prog bands is playing the ‘Six Degrees’ game with the various musicians. The connections are just remarkable sometimes.

As for the music here, like I said it’s not exactly memorable stuff, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t kind of a fun album in a novelty kind of way. Neither Michael English nor Nigel Waymouth had a musical background before they decided to undertake this project, and as far as I know neither of them did much musically after Hapshash. This is basically a forty-minute freak-out of the psych variety that is supposedly vaguely centered on a concept of an acid-trip operetta. That’s not what it ended up sounding like, but the players clearly had some fun in the process regardless.

Most of the rhythms are repetitive and fairly basic, particularly on the opening track and the way-too- long and rather catatonic “Empire of the Sun”. “Aoum” on the other hand is a weird Spock’s Beard’s “June”-meets-Gregorian chanting a capella only with some wraith-like female chanting in the background. Totally self-amusing indulgence, and completely sixties. I’m not panning it, but you should know what you’re getting in to if you pick this one up.

The Nostradamus-like prophecy in “The New Messiah Coming 1985” clearly missed the mark, unless it turns out Corey Hart was the messiah. More ad nausea chanting and tribal-like rhythms on this one too, by the way.

Probably the most creative and interesting track here is the two-minute “A Mind Blown is a Mind Shown”, a brief bongo-driven ditty that gets points more for a cool title than anything else.

So this isn’t a classic for sure, and not even particularly good. But if you’re reading this review and got this far then it’s safe to assume you’re the kind of person who’s a bit of a musical anthropologist, and if so then you may actually find this record mildly interesting. I’ve also had the privilege of hearing the second and final recording under the ‘Hapshash’ name and it isn’t as amusing as this one, so if you have to pick go with this one. Just don’t expect to be blown away – take it for what it is and you’ll have some fun. Three stars, although only recommended if you get off on old bands whose biography has outlived their music.

peace