Human Being - Live at the Zodiak - Berlin 1968 (Nepenthe Music) Artistically, Human Being adopted a defiant, proto-punk, non-musical approach to expressing their response to the post-war consumerist climate that they found themselves inhabiting, whilst railing against the previous generation’s failure to resist Nazism. Using (anything at first, through lack of cash) instruments to produce sounds and noises rather than adhering to musical norms, they democratised “music”, allowing access to anyone. Recorded in the year before the debut releases of the mighty Can and Tangerine Dream, Human Being were Free in the freest sense. The hour long recording commences with guttural drones and a saxophone call to arms. It sojourns into darker, industrial places and the intensity heightens and drops throughout. The final onslaught (15 minutes) is the most rewarding with its sliding strings and an out-and-out sawn, aural insult which fades out. It is this end which allows the listener to reflect upon what they have just experienced. Even when listened to out of the historical context (and with this passing of time an acceptance of anarchy, shock and noise into contemporary musical systems) it offers a crude awakening to music’s possibilities: an experience rarely achieved before or since. Until an anonymous fan produced the tapes, Human Being (and indeed all performances at the Zodiak) were considered unrecorded and now, some 40 years later, that they have been unearthed and released Human Being’s place as a precursor to (or certainly hugely influential upon) Krautrock and Kosmiche music history is a certainty. www.nepenthemusic.com Willsk Next