Human Expression - Love At A Psychedelic Velocity

Label: Mississippi Records & Moi J'Connais Records; Year: 2017; Format: Vinyl LP

The beauty of discovering old music is that there really is no end to it, especially if you open yourself to different genres. As you might have noticed I am open to different genres so depending on my mood I am in I like to specifically buy something suitable. A couple of weeks ago I stopped at the record shop of my choice here in Buffalo and told the proprietor that I was in the mood to buy something that's definitely not punk/hardcore. The nice gentleman pressed the Human Expression LP into my hands and told me that he thinks I'd like it and if not to bring it back. I not just like it, I love it. Human Expression were from Orange County in Southern California and were active for just a brief time period between 1966 and 1967. To be honest I didn't even have to look up their history and knew that they had to be from California as their songs have that very distinct feel to them. Being minors at the time I read that they had a hard time getting gigs, especially on the Sunset Strip. After cutting an acetate with 'Readin' Your Will' the band went on to release three singles on Hollywood-based Accent Records, all of them very sought after and obviously very expensive. Interestingly on their third and last single then unknown Mars Bonfire of the Sparrows and later Steppenwolf offered two songs to Human Expression; the one they took being the excellent 'Sweet child of nothingness' and a certain song they rejected called "Born to be wild". You make your own conclusion as for that one, but I suppose it wasn't meant to be for Human Expression. Still, it's obvious that whether it was back then or over the decades their music has remained popular, and with good reason. Some of their songs have appeared on Comps. such as Pebbles or the famous Nuggets series amongst others and this LP collects to my understanding everything the band has recorded including some songs that have previously not been released, and let me tell you that you're in for a very special treat. All fourteen songs are just mind-blowing in their own way, whether it be the tough garage rock tracks, the slower and moodier psychedelic rock songs, or just simply beautiful singer/songwriter ballads. All I can say is that it is a perfect psychedelic garage rock record you don't want to miss out on, end of.