Praise be to the good folks at the Reverberation Appreciation Society for conjuring up another excellent Levitation Sessions live performance recording. Their track record on these sessions is exemplary, and this latest one, featuring Swedish psych-mystics GOAT, is no exception.
The opening track, “Tarot Will Teach You,” pretty much lets you know what you’re in for if you’ve never heard a GOAT record. Jangling, shaking, slithering hand percussion, Mellotron chords, tribal drums, guitars that sound like they’re coming from inside a temple carved into a cliff…It lets you float into a nice space before “Golden Dawn” drops fast funk and one of the singers is asking, “Are you ready to go?” She doesn’t care what your answer is, really, because she and the rest of the band are taking off and will leave you behind if necessary. “Under No Nation” is a great cut with a top-notch guitar solo about how easy it is to forget we are all citizens of the world, not just these little enclaves in which we find ourselves, and that global and local conflicts are worthless endeavors.
“Behind the Plank” is over seven minutes of psych-jazz jamming with killer saxophone work and percussion throughout it. “Do the Dance” makes you want to do exactly that with its pulse-raising beats and power guitar chords played at just the right time. “Fill My Mouth” is the naughtiest song GOAT has released so far, and this live version is raw and funky, and of course there’s a lot of flute in it.
“Lorcan” is nearly seven minutes of krautrock synths and hand percussion. “Queen of the Underground” is vintage GOAT, with heavy riffs, sultry double female vocals, slinky bass, and trance-inducing percussion. “Let It Burn” moves like a fire in a hidden forest clearing, or perhaps atop of cold mountain, with people dancing around it well into the night. The album ends with a tidbit of “Midnight Madness,” which, in the original streamed version of the session, is over seven minutes long. The two-and-a-half minute slice here is a great tease of psych-synth music, leaving all of us wanting more.
It’s always great to hear new stuff from GOAT, who can and have disappeared at will for long stretches of time, only to come back like they never left. Time isn’t linear for them, and their perception of space is probably beyond the senses of many. This live session might help you get there, too.
Keep your mind open.
[Levitate over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
