Rocket Probes December Playlist

Anthroprophh / The Big Naturals - SRR
(This Heat styled limited CDR of Jams) 
Anthroprophh

Death & Vanilla - S/T 
(Broadcast type retro-futurism)
Death and Vanilla

Vision Fortune / Meddicine - Split LP
(Nice minimal, repetitive psych from London's Vision Fortune, reminds us quite a bit of Beak) 
Meddicine - Vision Fortune

Cherrystones / Gary the Tall - Shattered Throbs Scattered Roars
(Really nice mix CD of long lost psych, proto punk, space-electro and all round greatness) 
Cherrystones - Gary The Tall

My Solid Ground - Dirty Yellow Mist
(Spacey floydian psych underpinned by a really filthy fuzz riff) 
My Soild Ground

Space Needle - Voyager & The Moray Eels...
(Criminally underrated and forgotten band from the 90's...two great albums of spacey drone pop from these Spacemen 3 obsessives) 
Space Needle

Various - Chocolate Soup for Diabetics (Vols 1-3)
(Dug out these totally essential compilations of 60's UK freak beat / fuzz pop nuggets) 
Chocolate Soup For Diabetics

Gene Clarke - No Other
(Really great track taken from his album of the same name) 
Gene Clarke

Snapper - Snapper
(Four tracks of repetitive rock from New Zealand in 1988...it is where Loop, Suicide and Stereolab meet) 
Snapper 

Group 1850 - Various tracks
(Amazing psyched out pop from the Netherlands...like a Notorious Byrd Brother visiting the Gates of Dawn with a head full of SF Sorrow while eating Electric Bananas) 
Group 1850

Guelewar - Halleli N' Dakarou
(High-Life warped synth driven grooviness)
Guelewar 

Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time 
(Last of the Lemmy 'Wind' period, heavy synths & dual drumming)
Hawkwind 

Pink Fairies - Do It 
(Don't think about, just Do It!)
Pink Fairies

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Listen to Goat mix for Jon Hillcock on BBC6 Music

Goat fan and BBC6 Music DJ Jon Hillcock asked the band to put together a mix of songs for him to play on his show.

This is what they chose:


Ofo & The Black Company - Allah Whakbar
Uran - EMP
The Roots - It's Been A Long Journey 
Silver Bullet – 20 Seconds to Comply
Captain Beefheart - Run Paint Run Run
The Lijadu Sisters -  Reincarnation
UK Apache & Shy-Fx - Original Nuttah 
The Pyramids - Jamaican Carnival

You can listen to the mix here on Soundcloud:



Or you can listen to the mix here on the 6music site for the next 5 days BBC6 Music

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Rocket Q&A with Head Medicine

We were asked some questions by the blog Head Medicine, and here are our answers:

"Rocket Recordings is an independent record label from the UK, run by Chris Reeder and John O'Carroll,  that specializes in brain melting psychedelic music.  they have gained international attention recently after releasing "World Music," the debut album from the electrifying and mysterious Goat, to nearly unanimous critical acclaim.  (check out HEAD MEDICINE'S review of the album HERE) Rocket will be celebrating their 15th anniversary in 2013, and i wanted to find out more about them, their past, present and future, as well as how they managed to uncover one of the most exciting new bands in recent memory.

HEAD MEDICINE:  what would you say is Rocket Recordings mission statement, its  objective or underlying philosophy?

CHRIS REEDER:  Ha ha, we have never had a mission statement, an objective or underlying philosophy, we have basically been making things up on the spot for the past 15 years now.

The only thing i know is that we just want Rocket to put out damn fine records that sound and look great. And that is what we judge the success of a release on, how good it sounds and looks and not on sales.

HEAD MEDICINE:  when was the idea for Rocket originally conceived?  can you tell us a bit about your memories from the early days?  what were some of your early victories, and were there any harsh lessons learned?..."

You can read the answer to this question and the rest of the interview here Head Medicine

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Teeth of the Sea announce first show of 2013

Teeth of the Sea are going to be playing tracks from their forthcoming album at the Nest in Dalston as part of a club night on Friday 11 January .

Full details can be found here The Nest

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Gnod footage from Supersonic Festival

Here is some great footage of Gnod's recent performance at Supersonic Festival in October.

Don't forget Gnod will be playing a rare London show at the Anthroprophh album launch party at the Shacklewell Arms on Friday Feb 1st. 

You can buy tickets here wegottickets

We cant guarantee there will be tickets on the door as like all previous Gnod shows in London, we expect it to sell out in advance!!

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More end of year chart positions for Goat and great footage of their End of the World show

A couple more end of year charts that included Goat's World Music:

No 2 in Rock a Rolla magazine

No 1 on Opinears (great write up)

Album of the year (1 of 5) on Wine Women and a Song or two

Album of the year  on Pelecanus

And above is some fab footage of Goat's End of the World Show in Gothenburg on December 21st.
Enjoy

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See you the other side

Mission Control is closing for Xmas and New Year today (there may be the odd transmission).

So just wanted to wish you all have a great festive week of eating and drinking, and thanks for making 2012 an amazing year for Rocket...it has been a crazy ride and the reactions to our releases have been very humbling!!

But all we can say is that 2013, our 15th Anniversary year is going to be even bigger and better, with some amazing releases coming up by:

Anthroprophh
Gnod
Teeth of the Sea
Hills
Goat 
A special 15th Anniversary release
The Heads DVD (unlikely , but you never know)

So it, is looking like it is gonna be a great year!!

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The Guardian give Goat's World Music 5/5

Here is what they say:

Well now this is a treat. One of 2012's biggest underground rock albums – this year's Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, perhaps? – is the work of a deliberately enigmatic commune/collective who have supposedly built themselves some kind of snowbound psychedelic Shangri-La in a tiny village in Sweden's far north. Korpilombolo – so we are to believe – has a mysterious, long-established tradition of voodoo worship, and local priests have been serenading the townsfolk with various strains of far-out, pan-global incantations for generations; Goat are merely the current vessel for this time-honoured mystical practice, don't you know. Whatever the truth of all that, World Music sounds incredible – a pitch-perfect mix of Black Sabbath, Can, Fela Kuti, Funkadelic and the northern-lights psych of countrymen such as Pärson Sound or Träd Gräs och Stenar. It's overflowing with ingenious riffing, intoxicating chants and almighty freakouts, all with an exceptional dynamic bite and poppy concision that make it utterly accessible and head-spinningly great fun throughout. Beautifully realised, immaculately recorded, and one of the year's loveliest vinyl artefacts to boot.


Tom Hughes
The Guardian, Thursday 20 December 2012 21.00 GMT


See it here The Guardian

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Goat play End of the World show

That is right, if you are not at Nothing is... in London tomorrow night (21st), then you should be in Gothenborg to see the End of the World with a very special set by Goat at the venue Stora Teatern.

More info about the show here Goat

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Goat nominated for a Grammis and more End of Year Polls announced

We have just heard that Goat have been nominated for a Grammis award, which by all accounts is Sweden's big music prize which may well mean  a TV performance on prime time!!

More info here Grammis

Also, some more end of year polls have been including Goat's album World Music:

Top 10 in The Sleeping Shamen

No. 6 on Basement Gallery

No. 12  on Fast And Bulbous

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Anthroprophh Interview, review and early look at the finished LP artwork

The latest issue of Rock a Rolla magazine has an interview with Paul from Anthroprophh about his new album that is out on Rocket on January 28th.

The magazine also contains a review of the album.

Also today, we received the finished copies of the LP, here is the mirrored sleeve and 'eye messing' insert in all it's glory:

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More End of Year accolades and a Sleeping Shamen review of Goat's World Music

Here are some more end of year chart results for Goat:

No. 1 on Bothbarson

No. 2 on Get into this

No. 68 on Louder than War

No. 19 on Pop Matters (best new artist)

Also, The Sleeping Shamen have just published this glowing review of the album:

"Goat are a mysterious collective who originate from Korpilombolo, a tiny village situated in the northern reaches of Sweden, their debut ‘World Music’ follows on from their hotly tipped and highly infectious single ‘Goatman’ which was put out earlier in the year. The anonymous, masked collective tell a tale about their home village being steeped in hidden voodoo traditions after a travelling witch doctor settled there some time ago, hence forth infusing their sound with afro-influenced beats and instrumentation. Despite their vague collusions as to whom the actual members of Goat are and the bizarre backstory to the groups origins, the album they have spewed forth does not sound as disparate or out there as you would imagine, in fact its highly accessible, proving popular amongst a scarily large musical demographic. The band themselves describe their recordings and indeed their lifestyle as ‘invocations, prayers, and total rejoice!’ which goes someway to explaining the voodoo ridden, psychedelic forays that are presented on ‘World Music’..."

Read the full review here The Sleeping Shamen

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Gnod announce GESAMTKUNSTWERK

From the Gnod blog:


F R A C T U R E D S O N I C S / W A R P E D T R A N S M I S S I O N S

A new night starts at Salford’s industrial artspace Islington Mill on Friday 8th February 2013. Gesamtkunstwerk aims to bring a new kind of electronic night to the North West with the focus on sonic exploration with music from the experimental, bleeding edges of today’s diverse and genre-defying scene. The night is being co-run by Burnt Offerings together with Salford’s very own spacemen GNOD, who have been delving more and more into their own take on dark electronica recently. There will be a focus on the whole aesthetic of the night, using the work of artists, film makers and others to enhance the atmosphere, making it a unique mulitsensory experience. Expect collapsed outsider electronics, hardwarped machine rhythms and analogue debauchery all reflecting the postindustrial mill space.

The first of what will be a bimonthly event will feature Basic House, aka Stephen Bishop, who runs the new Middlesborough based Opal Tapes label and is also the lead vocalist of noise sludge gods Drunk in Hell. Opal Tapes have opened up an exciting space for artists working in beat driven electronic music to release more experimental sideproject material, as well as drawing in artists from the noise and drone fringes who are making music that’s inherently rhythmic. Also performing on the night will be Gesamkunstwerk residents VULJ and GNOD.

Tickets are available to purchase from Ticketline & Skiddle, £5 advance/£7 on the door.

GESAMTKUNSTWERK
FRI 8TH FEBRUARY 2012, 10pm-4am
ISLINGTON MILL / JAMES STREET / SALFORD / M3 5HW

BASIC HOUSE (OPAL TAPES)
GNOD
VULJ

www.gesamtkunstwerkmcr.tumblr.com

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Goat's Goatman appears on Austin Psych Fest 2013 mix tape

Great little soundcloud mix tape has been released by the folks at Austin Psych Fest that contains Goat's Goatman.

This is what they say:


San Francisco based producer Al Lover put together a killer mixtape featuring 26 of the 34 bands from the first round of lineup confirmations. Dig in!

We first found out about Al when he remixed some tracks from Night Beats, Shapes Have Fangs, Ty Segall and more on his Distorted Reverberations of Reverberating Distortion Mix and have been following his work ever since. You can find more of his work on his Bandcamp page. Keep an eye on this dude, he’s doing some great work and will be DJing at the fest.

Thanks Al!

TRACK LISTING
1. Intro
2. Acid Mothers Temple – Chakra 24
3. Spectrum – How you Satisfy Me
4. The Soft Moon – Alive
5. Lumerians – Black Tusk
6. White Fence – It Will Never Be
7. Al Lover – Transcendence Alchemy Interlude
8. Black Bananas – It’s Cool
9. Dead Skeletons – Kingdom Of God
10. DIIV – Air Conditioning
11. King Khan & The BBQ Show – Mind, Body & Soul
12. Al Lover – Secret Plants Interlude
13. The Growlers – Sea Lion Goth Blues
14. Black Mountains – Mary Lou
15. Boris – Sweet No. 1
16. Goat – Goatman
17. Clinic – The Equalizer
18. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Red Eyes and Tears
19. The Black Angels – Bad Vibrations
20. Warpaint – Bees
21. Tinariwen – Imidiwan Winakalin
22. Deerhunter – Don’t Cry
23. Al Lover – The Great Self Interlude
24. Quintron & Miss Pussycat – Swamp Buggy Badass
25. The Warlocks – So Paranoid
26. Man or Astro-Man? – The Sound Waves Reversing

You can listen/download to the mix here Austin Psych Fest

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Spin gives Goat another spot on their end of year chart

Goat's World Music appears in their 'Metal albums of the year!!!

They come in at number 4...this is what they say:


GOAT - WORLD MUSIC (ROCKET)
Borders are bogeymen. The anonymous members of Goat claim to hail from Korpilombolo, a small town in Sweden with a history of voodoo rituals. The guitars on their metal-leaning, almost-everything-encompassing debut album have the earthy Midlands crunch of prime Black Sabbath. There's a bhangra beat on "Run to Your Mama," as well as an invocation/cover of Boubacar Traoré's Malian hit "Diarabi." "Goatlord" is séance harmoniums and Nico's ghost wailing around a bonfire. This myth-shrouded band from a speck on the map crams an atlas-worth of psychedelic sounds into World Music. There was no better musical argument for a boundary-free world — or mind — in 2012. D.M.


Se the full rundown here Spin

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Gnod / Shit & Shine Collisions LP makes Boomkat's 'Best of 2012'

This is what they say of one of their favourite releases of the year:

Immense split slab of modern industrial psych rock from two of the heaviest, freakiest units around. Manchester's notorious rotating assembly of rogues, GNOD (counting Paddy Shine, Chris Haslam, Raikes Parade, Neil 'Der Fisch' Francis, and Marlene Ribeiro) dump 'Shitting Through The Eye Of A Needle In A Haystack' on the A-side, making the smart move to replace live drums with a machine, resulting in a fifteen minute ritual sounding like an demented Can jamming with Shackleton and Vatican Shadow - we sh*t you not! The dub heavy production is outstanding, and while it's given them a firm boot up the sphincter into 2012, its certainly not at the expense of their primordial force and intention. Bra-f**king-vo! Flipside, their Texan counterparts $hit & $hine churn up some crooked-ass motorik brainburn, revolving overdriven bass and swaggering drums around a mesmerising guitar hook, all jerked with digital dub FX, for thirteen minutes of roiling, psychotic badness. Recommended!

See here on Boomkat

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Run to your mama in Stolkholm

Here is a great little video of Goat performing 'Run to your mama' in Stockholm recently.

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Christmas Nothing is... featuring special guest Plastic Crimewave

Come and celebrate the end of the world at our last 'Nothing is...' of the year:

We are excited to announce that the legend that Plastic Crimewave is joining us on the decks, so you are going to be in for a treat of psych nuggets!!!!!

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More end of year polls anyone?

Goat's World Music has managed to pop up in a couple more end of year polls:

No 8 in Stool Pigeon

No 13 in Crack

No 68 on Pop matters

No 10 on P3.No

No 72 on PSL

No 70 on The Quietus

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Julian Cope's radio show plays the Anthroprophh

Blasphemous Broadcasting from Fido - X & Julian Cope.

Anthroprohhh will be getting a spin on Julian Cope's radio show (FIDOXRADIO.CASTER.FM) here

The show will broadcast on December 11th & 12th, between 12-4am.

Revolutionary radio the way it should be - kicking ass, not kissing it !!

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Supersonic film featuring Gnod and Goat (and the odd Teeth of the Sea)

Here is a great little film put together of the highlights of the Supersonic Festival soundtracked by Goatman by Goat.

The film includes some great footage of Gnod and Goat performing live, plus snippets of Teeth of the Sea and the odd Rocketeer during the 'Djembi and plastic cup orchestra' grand finale!!

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Goatman features on Rough Trade's Counter Culture 2012 compilation

This years Rough Trade compilation of the best tracks of the year 'Counter Culture' includes Goat's Goatman.

It also features a Beak track, so well worth buying someone as a stocking filler.

Get yourself a copy here

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More end of year polls been announced

A couple more end of year polls have been announced that feature Goat's World Music:

Number 13 in Loud and Quiet
–
Number 5 in Beard Rock
–
Number 9 on the Incubate blog
–

Fenriz, the drummer from Darkthrone says Goat is his album of the year:
–

And John Freeman, journalist for The Quietus, Clash, Stool Pigeon etc posted his top 20 albums of the year, and he made the Goat album his number 1 of the year!!

So thanks to everyone for digging the album!!!

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First date of Goat's US tour announced!!

As reported before, Goat are playing the Austin Psych Fest in April 2013 and while they are over in America they are going to be visiting some other Cities to play some shows.

The first of these is in Brooklyn New York at Glasslands on Tuesday April 23

You can buy tickets from here

Be quick as we can expect this to sell out fairly quick!!

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Head Heritage's Julian Cope masterfully gets the Anthroprophh debut

Julian Cope’s 'Address Drudion'  for December has high praise for Anthroprophh debt album out on Rocket in 2013. This is what he had to say:

'Meanwhile, there’s a fracas over at the Reviews Section due to the enormity of the debut album from Bristol’s Anthroprophh, whose first statement for the excellent Rocket Recordings has caused major heart palpitations here at H.H'.........read more

The Anthroprophh LP is released on ltd LP and download on January 28th.
For more information, see here

Don't forget to get your tickets for the launch party on Friday the 1st of Feb here

Thanks to Brett Savage for the photo.

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Goat appears in Spin's top 50 albums of the year

American music mag Spin has put Goat's World Music in at number 32 in their end of year top 50.

This is what they say:


No 32
GOAT - WORLD MUSIC (ROCKET)
Borders are bogeymen. The anonymous members of Goat claim to hail from Korpilombolo, a small town in Sweden with a history of voodoo rituals. The guitars on their metal-leaning, almost-everything-encompassing debut album have the earthy Midlands crunch of prime Black Sabbath. There's a bhangra beat on "Run to Your Mama" as well as an invocation/cover of Boubacar Traoré's Malian hit "Diarabi." "Goatlord" is séance harmoniums and Nico's ghost wailing around a bonfire. This myth-shrouded band from a speck on the map crams an atlas-worth of psychedelic sounds into World Music. There was no better musical argument for a boundary-free world — or mind — in 2012. DAVID MARCHESE



And nice to see Beak in there too at No 37

See the full rundown here Spin

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Gnod reveal taster for new album 'Presents... Dwellings & Druss'

Here is a taster from the new Gnod album that is called 'Presents... Dwellings & Druss' coming out on the great Trensmat records.

Sounding amazing!!!

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More accolades for Goat's World Music

As the end of year lists come flooding in, there has been more praise for Goats World Music.

Jumbo records in Leeds made it their album of the year Jumbo Records

The album topped Sick bookie list Sickbookies

Soul food has also put the album as their number 1 of the year Soul food

And Drift have made it one of their albums of the year Drift

Also NME has put Goat's World Music in their Top 10 sleeves of the year, saying "Clearly a slick marketing team is at work here." ha ha ha!!

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Rocket Probes November Playlist

Thought Forms - Ghost Mountain
(Great new album from this Invada band, crushing MBV guitar noise, Bardo Pond psych and Sonic Youth grunge collide to create a stunning and unique collection of songs) 
thought forms

Beak> - Mono / Kenn
(Great pop tune from Beak>, out soon on 7" (Invada) with Rocket artworked cover art.)
beak>
  
Cove - Ancient Circuits
(A band that consists of a Notorious Hi-Fi Killer, Hills have Riffs and an ex Bad Guy...two side length tracks that take you on a great journey through the many realms of psych/space/drone/doom rock. It's currently unreleased and looking for a label to give it a home?) 
cove

Vision Fortune - Live '98
(great tour cd from one of our fave UK bands around at the moment, cant wait to hear the album) 
vision fortune
 
Idea Men - ?
(side project by Hookworms, 5 tracks of great grungey garage)
 
Jade - Paperman
(Impossible to find killer fuzz rock 7", with stonking groove to it, fills the floor at every 'Nothing is...' when it is let out of the bag)
jade

Plant and See - Witches Brew
(It's all about the grooved out drums...another Nothing is...' fave!!)
plant and see

Cluster/Eno - Live in Paris 1977
(The incredibly poor quality of this recording makes it a very eerie but highly enjoyable listen) 
cluster / eno

Pure X - Pleasure
(Nice fuzzy indie with some good VU and Space Needle nods)  
pure x
 
Spider King - Animals
(Really great Silver apples sounding fuzz psych pop...what Beak would sound like if they came from Manchester in the '70s) 
spider king

John Berberian - Middle Eastern Rock
(The Oud & the Fuzz, need we say more)
john berberian

Orient Express -
(More east meets west psychedelia on this 'Train to Bombay')
orient express

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
(Really been getting back into this album, just for Lenny White – drum set – left,
Jack DeJohnette – drum set – right and Don Alias on congas, alone) 
miles davis

Labradford - Prazision
(Across between Mogwai and Bark Psychosis)
labradford

Jessamine - Jessamine
(Another Kranky band from mid 90's throwing shoegaze in with Irmin Schmidt keyboard wiggles)
jessamine

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Normans Records announce their top 50 albums of the year

Normans Records have announced that they share with Picaddilly Records that Goat's World Music is their best album of the year.

This hase totally blown us away!! Like Piccadilly we are big fans of Normans and it is a true honour to be awarded their prestigious album of the year.

So thanks Normans, it means a lot!!!

Great to see the amazing Chaudelande Vol 2 by GNOD in the top 10 as well!!!!

See Normans top 50 rundown here Normans

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Indie Moines makes Goat their album of the year

Website Indie Monies makes Goat their album of the year...this is what they say:


With that sense of always looking forward in mind, it tickles me to name a debut long-player by a band I’d neither heard nor heard of six months ago as the best that 2012 had to offer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you World Music by Goat, which I dub Album of the Year for 2012:

Goat’s “World Music,” the Indie Moines/J. Eric Smith Album of the Year for 2012. Click toat, World Music: Goat are a three-piece band in the studio and a seven-piece collective onstage who claim to come from a tiny town in Northern Sweden called Korpolombolo, in which a mystical Witch Doctor from distant ages past allegedly established a thriving voodoo cult that permeates local thought, music and culture to this day. I buy that they are from Sweden, but the rest of it, okay, that’s your story and you’re sticking to it, I get it. The band’s publicity construct is amplified by their use of masks and costumes onstage that actually do evoke a weird blend of radically disparate Nordic and Caribbean cultures. Regardless of how, where and why it was created, Goat’s music is sublime and exciting, offering a bizarre melange of conga-driven tropical rhythms and melodies taken straight from the NorthSide back catalog, tweaked with fuzztone bass and guitar, and with energetic female vocals atop the whole mess exhorting you to shake your sexy parts in a language that may or may not be some combination of English, Swedish, Ululation or Glossolalia. I can’t really understand many of the words, but I get the meaning and the vibe behind them, and I love the mood evoked by those declamations and the music that frames them. World Music doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before, and I suspect that there aren’t going to be many things in the months ahead that sound like it either, unless and until Goat get their sophomore disc out into the public domain. Exceptional. Exciting. And easily the best that 2012 has to offer from where I sit. Well done! Congratulations! And thank you to the mysterious masked musicians who gave us this disc. You’ve truly made something remarkable for the ages, and your Swedish Voodoo Witch Doctor forebears must be very proud indeed.


See the full list here

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