Music review: Goat - SWG3, Glasgow

The far out and fantastical Goat hail from Gothenburg, Sweden, though their hypnotic sonic hoodoo might as well have originated in the jungles of Papua New Guinea or on the moons of Saturn for all the relation it bears to modern Scandinavia. Their entirely fictitious back story has the group forming on a commune in Lapland where musical traditions from around the world were accepted, absorbed and nurtured – psychedelic, progressive and Krautrock being a speciality, it would appear from their thrilling, throbbing live set.
Goat bring sonic voodoo 
from the wilds of GothenburgGoat bring sonic voodoo 
from the wilds of Gothenburg
Goat bring sonic voodoo from the wilds of Gothenburg

GOAT - SWG3, Glasgow

* * * * *

This potent cocktail was spiced up with the mesmerising cyclical grooves of north African desert rock and the unfettered exhilaration of Nigerian Afro funk and delivered by a mysterious band of masked marauders, including a guitarist in bling executioner chic, what looked like an alien from Doctor Who beating out a relentless voodoo summons on a djembe drum and a bassist in a burqa (if that is not already the title of a Morrissey song, it should be).

Presiding over these heady, subversive proceedings were a couple of demonic cheerleaders in Venetian carnival masks, an acid-fried Agnetha and Frida chanting tribal incantations and strident unison mantras while stoking the mounting frenzy in the crowd with seemingly boundless reserves of shamanic stamina, shaking their staffs and their stuff through multiple musical crescendos, culminating with an intense bout of nosebleed Krautrock and white noise freakout which left their willing Glaswegian victims purged and probably deaf, but thoroughly invigorated.

Seen on 28.09.14