Goat

Swedish female-fronted band Goat offered a propulsive blend of classic rock and ethnic styles on World Music (Rocket, 2012), following their debut single The Sun And Moon (2012). Besides the brief instrumental raga Diarabi, the band crafts an energetic form of hard rock of the 1970s enhanced with African-style tribal percussion (Goatman) or trotting Indian-style percussion (Run To Your Mama, also a carillon-like xylophone). The distorted freak-out of Goathead is counterbalanced by the cinematic pulsing Golden Down. The party moves to a vintage discotheque for the funky shuffles Let It Bleed and especially Disco Fever. The gothic/exotic Nico-esque chant Goatlord and the solemn, hypnotic, Indian-tinged organ-driven eight-minute instrumental Det Som Aldrig Forandras constitute the philosophical alter-ego to the very bodily stance of the other pieces, and the most original aspect of the whole operation. The music is certainly outdated, even produced according to poor quality values to sound like it would have in the 1960s, but back then this would have been a milestone recording.

Goat's Afro-psych-rock focused on hypnosis for the best part of Commune (Rocket, 2014), starting with the Pink Floyd-ian raga-rock Talk To God and the polyrhythmic frenzy of Goatslaves. The variations on the model are creative, from the Caribbean dance with Cream-like jamming of The Light Within to the Syd Barrett-ian freak-folk of To Travel The Path Unknown. The peak is reached with the anthemic vibrato guitar and jungle tom-toms of Words. The album is less convincing with the conventional Arabic-tinged space-rock jam Hide From The Sun and the very conventional jam Gathering Of Ancient Tribes. The album contains some of their best material but seems to outlast its welcome because the good material spans at best six songs, and the rest could have been omitted.

After the "tropical" single Time For Fun (2015), the third album Requiem (Rocket, 2016) is a calmer work, starting with the flute-enhanced hippy folk dance Union of Sun and Moon and the exotic chant I Sing In Silence via the spaced-out folk-rock elegy a` la Mamas & Papas Alarms and the laid-back shuffle It's Not Me. In between one is treated to dances evoking various kinds of settings: the tribal pow-wow-esque Temple Rhythms, the festive Caribbean carnival-esque Trouble In The Streets, the Indian-esque Try My Robe (a` la Run To Your Mama), etc. There are few "hard" moments and the notable exception is the raga-metal hybrid Goatfuzz, with a bass riff reminiscent of Guess Who's American Woman, circular hymn-like patterns reminiscent of Terry Riley and a nod to Blue Cheer.

The live album Fuzzed In Europe (2017) contains an incendiary ten-minute version of Run To Your Mama.

Headsoup (2021) is a compilation that includes rare singles.