Dig Deep: Beast – S/T – Evolution (1970)

Beast – Inlook
Beast – Communication
Beast – Don’t You Think It’s Time
Beast – Migration

As I’ll detail next week in the New Year when I post my traditional rundowns of records I picked up over the past year, despite not being able to go out for much of 2020, I still did quite a lot of record therapy.  With a year like this one I was especially thankful to be able to be able to close it out with a trip to one of my favorite LA spots, Avalon Vintage.  Today marked only the third time I was actually in a physical record store during this year.  As bonafide record nerd/addict, in usual year there might be some days that I’d go to three stores, let alone weeks or months, so as I said, being able to close out this year actually being able to dig through a collection in person was about as nice a way as 2020 could close out.

And what a person.  Rodney is one of my favorite record people.  His tastes are broad, he tells the most amazing stories connected to his life and music and it’s always a joy to be in his space, newly re-designed a few months ago.

Perhaps it’s fitting the final record (well, in truth, I bought a bunch of records today), is by a band called Beast, since 2020 was such a beast of a year.  There’s not a whole lot that I know about this group, a seven piece outfit at this time, apparently based originally out of Denver, Colorado.  I have vague memories of seeing this record, somewhere, at some point in the past, and having the cover haunt me until now.  Now that I’ve actually listened to the album, with songs like “Inlook,” “Communication,” “Migration” and “Don’t You Think It’s Time?,” it’s a little hard to believe I haven’t had a copy before.  In terms of their sound, there’s many elements in Beast that I love dearly, there’s a bit of hard psych (“Move Mountain,” which I’m not sharing is maybe the best example of that), with more pastoral sounds, as well as CSNY harmonies, all mixed up with a bit of jazz, and some flightly flute.  After a year of so much uncertainty and (as I’ve written below) so much loss, it was nice to finish the year doing one of the things I’ve done the most in my life…digging for new and old sounds and finding a few gems of records along the way.  So, looking forward to 2021 and can’t wait for my “I Survived 2020” T-shirt to arrive.  Happy New Years folks!