Friday, December 17, 2010

Scent of Human History "Unreleased Album" (2003)


As I hinted earlier this week I had a nice surprise for everyone. Additionally, I mentioned having in my possession this unreleased recording in my post about their split cd with The Lazer and now I am finally ready to share this unreleased gem with everyone. In listening to this album it blows my mind that it was never released. If it was it could've easily been identified as a classic for that era of Long Island music but instead it has just been a rumored relic to many and only heard by a few. All of the Scent of Human History releases were solid but I think this collection of ten songs captures what they were doing perfectly, especially the band in their twilight as the songs were getting longer, more expansive and noisy bordering on psych at times mixed with the chaotic screamo that they were known for. I remember seeing most of these songs played live in the year that Yes Sensei and Scent of Human History played a lot of shows together but the one song that sticks out the most for me is the absolutely beautiful fifteen plus minute epic "Science". Everytime I saw them play this song it sent chills down my spine and coming from a critical point of view, this song really was sign of growth for the band as the beginning of the song was almost faint whisper like quiet and it slowly morphed into a monolith of sound with a eventually culminating chaos seemingly coming from nowhere. This may seem quaint now, but this was a good couple of years before "post rock" and stuff like Explosions in the Sky and Pelican started being all the rage. At that point it reminded me of later era Swans but back in 2003 no one I knew was claiming to like the Swans. I remember very vividly playing a show with Scent of Human History in some basement in Northport and their first song was a really fast, chaotic screamy awesome mess that barely broke one minute and a half. It finished and Jay Melli (the band's guitarist and vocalist) said "we have one more", I look around and people are puzzled. I mean I know that they were all in for some "Science" but it was cool to get a sense that no one knew what was coming. It was awesome. And so is the rest of this incredible unreleased album. I known it to be a great album for many years and I believe many of you will feel the same way after listening to it.

A quick not about the track listing. This is not 100% as the cd-r and tape I have of it are not labeled with track names, however I was able to name the tracks from memory and process of elimination.
Scent of Human History "Unreleased Album" track listing:
1. "Wind"
2. "Why Don't You Cut the Floor Out From Under Me"
3. "Territorial Pissings"
4. "The Choice Unchosen"
5. "Just in Stress"
6. "Change Melts Away"
7. "Or Will Drown"
8. "Instrumental"
9. "Science"
10. "Untitled"





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