Human Greed

"Consolation" (Album, 2002) !DSO Recommended!

Michael Begg and Deryk Thomas are Human Greed and this instrumental album on former Banshee Steve Severin's RE label is as disquieting as it is exceptional. One glance at the disturbing sleeve artwork should be sufficient warning that what is to come will not be easy listening.

An exploration into the human psyche that travels through the deepest darkness of despair, but fleetingly also offers some sense of optimism. Part audio travelogue, part nightmare soundtrack and part installation music, Consolation is a remarkable album that can be hard going if you concentrate too much but is unnervingly enveloping if you let go and allow it to wash over you. After a traumatic intro, the helicopter rhythmic noise/guitar loops into infitnity of Wonderful emerges as a dazzling experience. Minimalist changes and progression, yet the effect is simulataneously mesmerizing and moving. The eighteen-minute final composition, My Magic Pony is the sort of music that ought to exist only in a world like Lynch's Eraserhead. Sadly, for some, this is the soundtrack to their lives.

The digital artwork by the Baltoi Bailiff that accompanies this release visually reflects the broken dreamworld of the music. Fragments of the unconcious, violent words conjuring violent images. Like much fine art, you have to work with this release to get the most from it. It wasn't an easy journey but that's undeniably what it is. Brutally honest, enlightening and remarkable. 8/10

Rob Dyer

Official Human Greed website: http://www.humangreed.com