Goat - World Music

It's a psychedelic record with an afrobeat feel, though, I don't think 'tight' would really work with that. The singing is great.

― emil.y, Tuesday, January 29, 2013 12:17 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's tons of psychedelic afrobeat! And it's usually pretty tight!

^^Very true

I think it's interesting that Vampire Weekend got dinged for a very specific, and very informed type of cultural tourism and this more hamfisted one got a pass.

One of these is from NYC, the other is from Sweden. I suspect that's why.

Also, Vampire Weekend's profile was about a thousand times higher than Goat's.

Yeah, I dunno, I put it in the same lineage as Sylvester Anfang but more beat-centred, not 'here we have a funky band doing their tight funky thing'. But fair enough, if you want a tighter psychedelic afrobeat record, go and listen to one.

I think it's interesting that Vampire Weekend got dinged for a very specific, and very informed type of cultural tourism and this more hamfisted one got a pass.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, January 29, 2013 5:24 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, maybe because Vampire Weekend are one of the worst bands ever?

No I think it's because they were self-aware instead of having this "we are communing with the primitive oneness" posture.

I'm not a Vampire Weekend fan, but they were very specific and respectful in their appropriations whereas Goat are offensive in theirs. I think that's an interesting point, but not one that needs much unpacking.

Well, it warrants unpacking if the respectful group gets called out and the offensive group doesn't.

Musically Goat aren't offensive in what they're doing at all. I've yet to see what they do on stage so I can't comment on that. Besides which, I'm not sure the Vampire Weekend were 'called out' for it so much as it was another stick to beat the shitty band with (it certainly wasn't my problem with them at all).

"the Vampire Weekend"? Uh, yes.

I was entirely unclear, which is impressive when it's only two sentences!

I meant to say the quality of either's music or whether someone likes one and not the other doesn't need to be unpacked. The first sentence warrants unpacking, the second I wrote is useless.

Musically, I find Goat offensive for the ooga booga-ness; it is only amplified by the dashiki bullshit.

Where is the ooga-booganess? How does it inhere in the music?

It's right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crLda0HDhfw

everything about it is such a terrible approximation

Yeah, the "ooga-booga" ness is pretty obvious from the live show, but I really don't hear it in the music itself, divorced of the stage show.

It is in the nonspecific Afrobeatish drumming, the hoodoo voodoo chanting, the same kind of exotica that signified "Deepest Darkest Africa" in pop culture for decade after decade.

I'd be willing to re listen to this as a more rhythmically dynamic Sylvester Anfang II but I was not a fan of this.

might be misreading it, but is bongo dude's balaclava some sort of knit-yr-own blackface shit?

I never picked up on that stuff while listening to the album tbh. It may just be coincidence that the tracks I revisit are the Afro-free ones.

I mean what I hear in the music is just mostly people who listened to some afrobeat records and sort of have a general idea about what it's like but don't really get the details. To be fair, some great music has started out of bad approximations of other kinds of music (some ilxor had a really good post about this once). I'm more just annoyed by the jam-bandy vibe and the second rate drumming.

My initial problem was I didn't think it was a very good psych band, but each time I revisited I got more uncomfortable with all the other bits.

Saw coverage of this band at Glastonbury and a bit perplexed as to why anyone mentions Afrobeat in connection with them - admittedly haven't listened to any of their records - didn't get that at all. Struck me as being sort of jammy early 70s rock end of Krautrock (bit of Amon Duul II, bit of Guru Guru) with tuneless post-punk vocals + perhaps a bit of Flower Travellin' Band, y'know that sort of stuff ILM seems to love so much.

i liked this record a lot - the closing track is a serious jam - but watching that video...i dunno, to me, they are walking a pretty dicey tightrope

agree completely about the video. it's all i've seen of their live performance, and it works hard to undercut the music's appeal. i can see as how the ooga-booga stuff might seem less offensive to swedes/in sweden (race the the "proper" attitudes to take toward it are local cultural constructs), but it doesn't look good from here.

still like the album well enough though.

y'know that sort of stuff ILM seems to love so much.

Fuckin ILM when will they learn.

My only problem with this album is that it's so trebly it hurts my ears after a while, oh, and also some tracks sound like they're being played about 30% too slow.

As for ooga-booga, I kind of see what people are saying but I don't see much difference between this stage show and, for example, that put on by Gang Gang Dance when they play live.

re: ooga booganess, I remember reading somewhere that they have this backstory where they're part of some lost Swedish tribe of shamans or something along those lines. giving them the benefit of the doubt that that's what they're pulling here.

The Swedenization of ooga booga.

To be fair, Europe has its own traditions of tribal/shamanic get-up.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/europes-wild-men/freger-photography

saw them at the Electric Ballroom last week, and yeah it felt v clumsy, top to bottom. I liked the album, but they aren't really persuasive enough dancers, players, singers to make you think it's something more than dressing-up-box Africa. uncomfortable.

whoa i had to stop watching that video upthread after like 20 seconds

yeah, think i made it nearly a minute in. but i've got a pretty high pain threshold.

I've totally changed my mind about the album fwiw

love this album. other than one or two tracks like "Disco Fever" it doesn't have much to do with Afrobeat, to me. more along the lines of Flower Travellin Band and Babe Ruth.

the new 7" on Sub Pop is good too.

Finally watched the Glastonbury footage begfore it disappeared and it's amazing how much the camera not focussing on the girls reduces the ooga booga quotient. On a small stage, with them filling the front and the other musicians in dark clothes and poor lighting, there's nothing else to see and you can't escape watching them the whole time. The bigger stage and open air sound system completely changed the sound too, turned them from being krauty afrobeat to a.n.other jam band, just typical WOMAD fare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z-CNxLeItw

New Goat track!

reminds me of Popol Vuh on first listen

Oh no

yup they've nailed it

hey hey, is anyone going to see them at the roundhouse on the 3rd oct? i'm going to see them as a birthday treat. would be nice to bump into some ilxors there.

I like this new one

good album though i have mixed feelings about the vocals

I've got mixed feelings about this band. They're like Moon Duo -- seems rly good at first, but kinda predictable.

There's something Goat's costumes + voodoo drum circle schtick that feels a little forced/crude/uncomfortable to me, but they've got a loose, bluesy psych aspect to their music that I can get into. The hollering can be a little obtrusive sometimes. I like this new album loads better than their first one I think.

Moon Duo sound like a band who aim for Loop yet consistently end up at "Running Down A Dream," which can be okay in small doses.

was excited to pick this up at lunch, but Sub Pop didn't get any copies to my local.

Escape EP >>>>>>>> World Music

Digging "Commune" so far, with "Bondye" being a high point. Actually this album's reminding me a little bit of Agitation Free's Malesch, but more song-oriented, obviously.

New one is tremendous too. Like a melanage of all the best music. They've rescued the pan pipe!

man I never even got round to checking out Commune

idk i think i like this goat better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VesLtZgqtho

glad I discovered this band on the spotifies

Just got the new odds and sods comp, Headsoup, last week and I'm digging it. Hadn't realized it's been five whole years since the last album.

The only complaint I have is that "Let It Burn" is an edit version at around half the length of the original, which seems a weird since the original was, afaict, a digital exclusive anyway. Why not include the full version here?

The two new tracks from 2020 are killer, esp "Queen of the Underground".

new album out October 21

https://goat.bandcamp.com/album/oh-death

Listening to the new one—first new album in six years. Some good stuff but a little patchy.

Even newer one, self-titled, is fucking phenomenal and might be their best since World Music. A little more funk influence that usual added to the already potent mix.

Definitely like the new one more than the one from last year. Not sure yet how it ranks compared to the earlier stuff.

I can only listen to a song or two at a time before I’m ready for a change but the fuzz tone on the first song on this album is *chef’s kiss*

“ouroboros” is a fucking ripper, my god