For the love of Goat: Sanjoy Narayan writes on Sweden’s cosmic folk concept band
Little is known about the members; they wear masks and costumes at gigs. Rather than wonder about it all, here’s why you should simply enjoy their music.
A couple of weeks ago, Matt Everitt, a host on the BBC Radio 6 online station, described the mysterious band Goat most aptly when he called them “Sweden’s heavy psychedelic cosmic folk concept band”.
He went on to play three tracks from their new album, their sixth, simply titled Goat, on his show, New Album Fix.
Goat is one of the most enigmatic bands in the world of contemporary rock.
Little is known about their origins; we don’t even know the names of the members or what they look like. The (usually) seven-member group wears masks and costumes while performing. They believe their anonymity is central to their music.
They avoid media interactions and, in the rare interviews, say things about themselves that only intensify the mystery. They have hinted at possible origins in Korpilombolo, a village of 529 people in Sweden’s northernmost county of Norrbotten. They seem to live together, in a commune.
The answers only seem to lead to more questions. So, alternatively, one can choose to simply enjoy their music.
This is a mesmerising blend of psychedelic rock, Afrobeat and world music, drawing on influences from tribal, folk and indigenous musical traditions around the world. They play conventional instruments such as the guitar, drums, keyboards, synths and saxophone, as well as unconventional ones, including and a range of hand-held folk and tribal percussion instruments.
The singers are two women, usually dressed in elaborate robes and headgear made of feathers and beads. Their shamanistic dancing adds a whiff of paganism to most gigs. And there are gigs aplenty.
Ever since the new album was released in October, for instance, the band has been on a tour of the UK and US. Each performance, whether watched live or as a video recording, can be a sensory overload, with the eclectic costumes and hypnotic sound combining to create a transportive experience.
Goat the album takes us back to the psychedelia of the 1960s. The album opener, One More Death, seamlessly fuses Led Zeppelin-type riffs with Eastern folk influences. The standout track Ouroboros is a seven-minute confection with guitar lines, haunting horns, and wailing vocals that beseech you to find the God within yourself.
On the track Fool’s Journey, Japanese pan pipes play soothing tunes; on Dollar Bill, the central riff takes one on an extended wah pedal rave that can feel like a time-machine ride back to psychedelic rock’s early days.
The band’s debut album, World Music (2012), was a masterclass in psychedelic rock. Tracks such as Goatman and Let It Bleed showcased their ability to blend different musical styles. The album received critical acclaim and established the band as a force to be reckoned with in the world of experimental music.
It also led to a bit of controversy.
Some thought it was audacious for a band from one of the northernmost Nordic corners to title their album World Music, and even alleged a sort of cultural appropriation of sounds indigenous to other, distant cultures.
That didn’t stop Goat from pushing its exploration of psychedelic sounds and releasing a rash of studio albums (as well as at least three live-recorded releases) that garnered growing interest from listeners and critics.
There is a raw and infectious energy to their sound that creates a unique, captivating experience. In 2022’s Oh Death, with tracks such as Under No Nation and Goatmilk, the band demonstrated its ability to blend Afrobeat rhythms with psychedelic rock.
On last year’s Levitation Sessions, a live recording, the band chose to shoot the performance on video as well as make a recording as an album.
About the album, the band said: “We chose to record the session… during a cold night under a huge midnight sun in the darkest winter time… We thought it would bring out the best magic in us and we think it did... In the end, this film became a perfect representation of what we do when we hang out.”
Watching the one-hour plus video (available on YouTube) can be an immersive experience of Goat’s music and the hypnotic psychedelia it creates.
The genre known as modern psych, with its roots in the music and culture of the 1960s, has many contemporary artists who may differ in execution but share a common aim: to recreate the perception-altering effects of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin, with music alone. Goat manages to do this far more effectively than most.
Their commitment to anonymity and their mythmaking certainly helps. But it is their musical prowess — the ability to merge disparate influences into a coherent, exciting whole — that places them at the forefront of the modern psych genre.
(To write in with feedback, email sanjoy.narayan@gmail.com)
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