With the Pagan festival of Mabon and the Autumnal Equinox only just past us, it seems appropriate for Scandi psychedelic rockers, Goat to provide a soundtrack of celebration as we head towards the colder months. And, as expected, Goatman and his crew have not let us down with their completely wigged out set of funky vibes and transcendent rhythms.
Lively shamanic grooves fill the band’s third album of new songs in as many years, as our favourite mask-wearing mystics channel uplifting, yet primal chants and mind-blowing cosmic jams with some serious verve after last year’s considerably more relaxed Medicine. As ever though, their tunes manage to defy easy classification, drawing from Afrobeat and druggy psychedelia to sweaty funk and Middle Eastern tones. However, it’s all glorious, brain-frying stuff.
From the swaggering and earthy opener, “One More Death” to the intoxicating tripped out rave up of “Ouroboros”, Goat’s musical magpie approach is yet another radical celebration that acknowledges no cultural boundaries, so long as the music is head-spinning, soulful and totally hip-swinging – even taking on hip-hop grooves to fuel the woozy “Zombie” and spaced out East Asian vibes on the cosmic “Fool’s Journey”.
In the main though, Goat’s self-titled new set is about getting up and stomping your feet to sounds that elevate your soul and remove all thoughts of any mundane day-to-day concerns. “Goatbrain”, for one, is a hedonistic celebration that certainly has no truck with quiet contemplation, while “Dollar Bill” is a fuzzed-out revelry and “Frisco Beaver” is all but an instruction to get up and shake your bits. Set closer “Ouroboros”, however, takes things even further out there with a seven-minute crazed trance, powered by baggy grooves and jazzy vibes of total abandon. And that’s something that feels nothing short of essential during these ever-more disturbing times.
