"Enter The Peeb", by Human Peeb

Enter The Peeb, by Human Peeb

I was finishing up at work, when one of my coworkers asked if I could have a listen to his album. So instead of taking the bus home, I put in my earbuds and walked. In doing so, I'd accidentally set up the best listening conditions to listen to Human Peeb's Enter The Peeb. A nighttime walk is the perfect literal journey to accompany the metaphorical journey of this album, and headphones make sure you can hear how he used the left and right channels (when mentioning this to him, he said he mixed the album with headphones on).

The album is incredibly bizarre, incredibly engaging, and definitely something to be experienced beginning to end, as a whole. Human Peeb drifts naturally between real instruments, and electronic samples and sounds. Discussing this with him, he mentioned that all instrument samples were made from outside sounds—boxing bags, water, bike spokes, whistling, deodorant cants, etc.

The lyrics were very creative, with the lyrics for Tinselitis being solid gold reindeer shit (that's a good thing). Human Peeb has a sort of Cat Stevens thing going on with his voice, and I initially thought (before I realised how weird the lyrics were) that perhaps he was using a Cat Stevens sample in the first track of the album.

The album is layered really well, with plenty of layers to pull back, and plenty of little details to focus in on.

Listening to this album the first time around, my brain got confused trying to parse the non-English parts. I thought perhaps it was some Romance language I was unfamiliar with, because there were so many sounds that sounded like Portuguese or Italian. Apparently it was a made-up language—one with what seems like pretty consistent phonology and structure.

This is an album I didn't want to interrupt. I arrived home before the album was over, and I kept my headphones in until it was done.

Ultimately I was left wondering: How did he manage to find shrooms in New Zealand?

Enter The Peeb is not an album destined for a mainstream audience, but I definitely think it's one that will find its place with musicians who can appreciate what goes into something like this.

Good night, and remember to stay away from grandpa's medicine cabinet.

(You can listen to Enter The Peeb on Spotify.)