Goat
Commune
23 September 2014
Sub Pop
4 stars out of 5
Swedish psychedelic rock peddlers Goat claim to be from
Korpilombolo, a hamlet of half a thousand people in Norrbottens Iän, the
northernmost county of the country, although in truth they don’t even know how
to spell the town’s name correctly. (It’s possible that there’s some basis in
fact to the legend, but the band is currently based in Göteborg.) Masters of
disinformation, Goat perform their highly improvised “world music” while
wearing masks, for much the same reason as did compatriots The Knife: to divert
attention from the individuals who make up the band and to put the focus on the
music itself. Their music is a combination of afrobeat, psychedelia, and prog—picture
Fela Kuti fronting Älgarnas Trädgård
while covering Funkadelic and you’re starting to get the idea.
Despite the improvised nature of Commune, there are some highly memorable melodies present on the
record, such those to be found on “Hide from the Sun” and “Talk to God.” Most
importantly, this is improvised rock music that isn’t boring (because, let’s face it, there’s nothing duller than
a twenty-minute jam by a bunch of stoned hippies). Goat bring to the table a
lifetime of training in spontaneous composition, and they don’t fuck around—some
of the tracks on Commune clock in at
under three minutes, and they’re fully realized wholes rather than edits from
longer jams. Goat make music that is simultaneously inclusive and uncompromising:
it welcomes you into its world with open arms but doesn’t dumb itself down if
you’re too slow to understand. One of the better bands of the psychedelic
revival of the last half a decade.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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