ALBUM OF THE MONTH - GOAT - GOAT (2024)

Maya Kay
Oct 27, 2024
3 min read

GOAT claims to come from a commune in the cursed village of Korpilombolo, in the remote north of Sweden. They wear masks during their performances, and with the exception of Christian Johansson, who was interviewed in the early days of the band, their identities are unknown. They perform ritualistic dances when they perform, and their aesthetic is dripping in mysticism.

Their eponymous album, released earlier this month, is their sixth studio album, and it’s a distillation of their previous releases. The music is deeply psychedelic, and fuses afrobeat, zamrock, ethiopian jazz, progressive rock, reggae, and desert rock, among other genres. Djembe drums and shakers abound. Turkish progressions lift you up then gently place you back down on solid ground. The drums and rhythms are energetic and tribal, and layered with spiritual wailing.

After listening to GOAT for a few years, this release prompted me to look them up, and I was surprised to find that the band is Swedish, since they sound like something out of west Africa or the Amazon. I became reluctant to continue listening to them, particularly after seeing how they dress.

They sport Amazonian, Balkan, and African masks; Middle Eastern headdresses and robes (one photoshoot even shows a band member in what looks like a burqa); and of course, voodoo aesthetics. Under it all, you can see that they are all white, which made me cringe a little. While their aesthetics are vaguely pagan, I struggled to find anything in Scandinavian or Nordic history or folklore that looks similar to their masks or outfits, and so the look seems to be wholly borrowed from other cultures, just like the music.

Of course, it was pretty commonplace for western musicians to borrow from other cultures in the 60s and 70s, particularly in psychedelia, with bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin incorporating elements like sitars, chanting, and Eastern progressions. To limit this would be to put put restrictions on creativity. In fact, many of my current favourite artists still borrow from other cultures, like Grails, Kula Shaker, and Baxter Dury. Plus, the borrowing arguably goes both ways, since Zamrock musicians like WITCH used western rock influences that they combined with African music to make something new.

However, it’s not clear that GOAT are adding something from their culture, or making something unique. The music is very similar to existing bands like Mdou Moctar and Africa ’70. It still sounds really good, and I suppose they’re bringing things together, almost in a schema of psychedelic music from across the world. However, particularly with their appearance considered, it comes across more like a parody. GOAT’s first album was titled “World Music” (2012), a phase that seems somewhat ignorant. The fetishisation of cultures and spirituality all feels a bit Disneyland, like the musical version of gap year harem pants. Now that I know, I’m finding it a bit hard to look past, especially if you consider that they’re making money off of a sound and aesthetic that isn’t their own.

GOAT takes its name from the commune it claims to hail from. The story goes that, in medieval times, the village followed the teachings of a Tanzanian witch doctor who had travelled to Sweden bringing voodoo rituals. When Christian crusaders invaded the village in the 1500s, the fleeing townsfolk placed a curse on it. Years later, it became a hippie commune.

It’s hard to tell whether any of this is true, or whether it was manufactured to create publicity, as all the articles about the curse mention the band. GOAT also claims to have existed as a tradition or a long time, with constantly changing members and with recordings from over 40–50 years ago, despite their debut album only being released in 2012. However, I can’t find anything to confirm this either, and I’m tempted to think that the mythology is a justification to rip off other cultures.

Similar artists:

WITCH

Dengue Fever

Mdou Moctar

Kikagaku Moyo

Fela Kuti

Africa ’70

Yin Yin

Funkadelic

Exuma

Austin TV

Tinariwen