Rating: NNNN
Anonymous Swedish psych purveyors Goat delve deeper into spiritual corners on their follow-up to 2012’s acclaimed World Music. Commune starts with the single peal of a church bell that reverberates into Talk To God, an archetypal Goat song with its hypnotic polyrhythms, repetitive groove, guitar lines both spidery and thunderous, and chanting female singers. You can imagine the group in their elaborate masks and face paint hopping and dancing around a bonfire Burning Man-style.
And yet things never get cheesy, despite the inclusion of a sampled lyric about being “a positive force in the constant creation of evolution.” Variety abounds thanks to several affecting instrumentals, ever-changing instrumentation and guitar tones that range from Iommi thick to Hendrix wah-wah to clean Bombino-like hypnotism. Male and female vocals trade off on Goatchild, the hippiest of the nine tracks, while Hide From The Sun has a delightfully sick fuzz guitar solo mashed against feather-light sitar lines.
Each song unfolds unhurriedly – the type of music that makes you dance into a state of cathartic calm rather than frenzy.
Top track: Hide From The Sun