“Human Greed lie somewhere between the gorgeous drones of Stars of the Lid and the haunting and solemn “Symphony No. 3” by Henryk Górecki… This is powerful stuff and takes a while to fully digest it. The oily darkness that the music conjures up gets deeper and deeper with every listen, a resonant and otherworldly tremor that is at once human and sublime.” Brainwashed

There used to be a trinity of Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Coil. Now the sonic gate keepers are a quartet; Nurse, Current, Cyclobe and Human Greed.” Was Ist Das

The name arose from a theatre show. You shouldn’t read anything into it. Human Greed comprises Michael Begg and Deryk Thomas.

Buy Recordings

Releases

Consolation (RE:, 2001)

Pilgrim: New World Homestead (Omnempathy, 2006)

Black Hill: Midnight at the Blighted Star (Lumberton Trading Co., 2008)

Fortress Longing (Omnempathy/ICR, 2011)

Dirt on Earth: a pocket of resistance | Michael Begg/Human Greed (Omnempathy, 2012)

OMEGA.osts|Michael Begg/Human Greed (Omnempathy, 2013)

World Fair | Human Greed (Omnempathy, 2014)

Hivernant | Michael Begg/Human Greed (Omnepathy 2015)

Let The Cold Stove Sing | Michael Begg (Omnempathy 2016)

A Moon That Lights Itself | Michael Begg (Omnempathy 2016)

TITAN: A Crane Is A Bridge | Michael Begg (Omnempathy 2017)

One True Vine | Michael Begg / Mélenchon Brève (Omnempathy 2018)

 

Reviews

 

World Fair Reviews

“If you have not heard this yet, rectify that situation immediately… Astonishing even by the high standards I would have held Michael Begg to… World Fair is a formidable work… they have made manifest an album of rare power”
Brainwashed Readers Poll 2014
Was Ist Das, Album of the Year, 2014: “The brilliance of Human Greed has been quietly hidden in the music underground for a few years now and getting brighter all the time. This year they delivered their finest album yet, a dark swoon from the cold hills, a bedtime story for lost adults everywhere.”
Was Ist Das

World Fair is a devastatingly beautiful release from a much under-appreciated group… At the hands of Human Greed obliteration has never sounded so enticing
Compulsion Online
World Fair is an incredible achievement… Human Greed are criminally undervalued; Begg is one of our most significant contemporary experimental composers. The scale that he has imagined and created with World Fair is testament to this. It is a masterwork.
The Active Listener
OMEGA.ost Reviews

Sound wizard Michael Begg offers breathtaking sound collages… a dazzling, intriguing whole. Even after 10 spins this reviewer had goosebumps on his arms and a cold shiver running up the spine… indicating Begg as a fucking master of his craft. After listening, your perception of music and the apocalypse may never be the same
DARK ENTRIES
Excellent release… Almost like Jack Torrance going for a drink. Odd music, but an excellent showcase of what the musical capacities are of Michael Begg
Frans de Waard, VITAL WEEKLY

Dirt on Earth: a pocket of resistance Reviews

“A milestone release… Absolute Masterpiece”
Dark Entries

“Michael Begg offers us another magnificent piece of occluded ambience… A brilliant album”
Aquarius

“The glacial symphonies of Dirt on Earth could coat the Sahara in frost. There is no music on Earth that sounds as haunted as Human Greed.

“Dirt on Earth is a masterful creation… There used to be a trinity of Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Coil. Now the sonic gate keepers are a quartet; Nurse, Current, Cyclobe and Human Greed. This is an essential album.”
Was Ist Das

“Political commitment returns to the field of abstract music. This record is an act of resistance against alienation. Any mystical beauty has its light… and here is a reflection in obsidian, with winter wind and flowing blood”
Feardrop

“Music of a great quality. Majestically played”
Vital Weekly

“Gloomy symphonies full of harrowing emotional life… a majestic, powerful, compelling masterpiece”
Caleidoscoop

“Dirt On Earth is a creature of the night… pressing up against the listener and tugging at hair and clothing.

“The geographies of Dirt On Earth – in particular majestic closer ‘Scenes From The Carefree Life’ – feel like secret routes through highland terrain that’s already vaguely, naggingly familiar, with certain landmarks along the way reminding you briefly of your location before ushering you swiftly towards hollows and hills you’ve not yet explored.”
The Quietus

Fortress Longing Reviews

“Staggeringly beautiful music… utterly dreamlike… one of the albums of the year”
Brainwashed (Fortress Longing)

“A studio master creating an album of of mystery and imagination… contains so many moments of sheer perfection. Impossible to pin down. Impossible to put down”
Was Ist Das

“A rich release full of hidden drama. Excellent.”
Vital Weekly

“Fortress Longing has the confidence and construct of a single orchestral symphony… with the unpredictable power to chill or destroy”
Musique Machine

“A gorgeous one-hour aural journey”
Francois Couture

“The music unfolds as a beautiful symphony from a parallel universe… It is a grand and compelling masterpiece of unprecedented splendour.”
Caleidoscoop

Black Hill: Midnight at the Blighted Star reviews

“Black Hill occupies a realm that is somewhere between the gorgeous drones of Stars of the Lid and the haunting and solemn “Symphony No. 3” by Henryk Górecki. This is powerful stuff and takes a while to fully digest it. The oily darkness that the music conjures up gets deeper and deeper with every listen, a resonant and otherworldly tremor that is at once human and sublime.” Brainwashed

PILGRIM: New World Homestead reviews

“This is night music, which ripples with your deepest and darkest doubts… Human Greed have managed to conjure up a chilling collection of audio nightmares that calls the listener back again and again to discover more layers of sonic creepiness”
Rock a Rolla

“serious and overwhelming”[…] “a hostile environment of latent violence”
Trinta de Fevereiro

“Taking atmospheric, menacing ambience to heady new depths… to create an atmosphere which could enswathe the grimmest of David Lynch’s filmic output”
Boomkat

“As fitting a drama of nervous exploration and discovery, there is wonder and dread in equal measure here: Part dream, part nightmare, Pilgrim’s hypnotic call inevitably lures the listener into treacherous waters before plunging them into fatal depths”
Rough Trade

CONSOLATION reviews

“A Fear filled symphony of terrors… that gradually entwines your imagination in its numerous sonic tentacles and refuses to relinquish its grip.”
Edwin Pouncey, The Wire

“…a dark delight full of Stygian soundscapes”
Mojo

“A master class in claustrophobic paranoia.”
BarCode Magazine

“Secures a place for Human Greed in the echelons of melancholic experimentalism”.
Absorb

“Requires the patience of a saint”
Kerrang!

“Disquieting as it is exceptional… Brutally honest, enlightening and remarkable”
Dark Star