Name: Requiem
Brand: Goat

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

A 71171 S

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: Yes

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

LPx2

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Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2016-10-07

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

098787117110

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Total Cap

2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

CD 71171 S

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Download code: No

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Sub P­op

098787117127

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Goat

Genre US

New Psyche & Psyche Rock

Label US

Sub Pop Records

Goat is a Swedish experimental fusion rock band. According to their original story, they come from a Norrbotten voodoo sect in Korpilombolo, but the seven members currently reside in Gothenburg. The band members choose to remain anonymous and wear masks on stage, using various aliases.

Influenced by afrobeat, hard rock, and jazz, Goat's psychedelic music is a unique blend of genres. Their ensemble consists of two singers, two guitars, electric bass, drum kit, and congas. During their captivating performances, the two singers showcase intricate dance numbers that enhance the ritualistic atmosphere.

Experience the enigmatic allure of Goat as they push boundaries and create mesmerizing musical journeys that will leave you spellbound.

“I have always adored the buzzing sound of electricity amplified in highly-distorted sound spectrums” reckons John O’Carroll. “It just seems so fitting to hear instruments like that; when I hear some nice fuzz or distortion, it's an aural manifestation of electricity itself - and being a visual person, I can't help but see it visually.”

The blurred lines between sensory experience that co-founder John O'Carroll touches on sits at the very heart of Rocket Recordings. Visualising fuzz and distortion is one thing but there are endless elements of layering, volume and smooth, sharp and abrasive edges in equal parts adding a tactile facet to the recordings.

This goes hand in hand with the beautiful album artwork across the board which makes flicking through their collection more akin to walking through an art gallery than skimming through a box of records. Co-founder Chris Reeder's background in graphic design is partly to blame for this as are the weird and wonderful artists signed to the label.

“Rightly or wrongly, we’re generally thought of as a psych label” Chris Reeder said in an interview with <a href="https://www.loudandquiet.com/short/20-year-story-rocket-recordings-told-via-10-essential-releases/">Loud and Quiet</a>. Though the bands rarely subscribe to Psychedelia in its sonic tradition, all the bands have an appetite for the strange - pushing the envelope every which way. Mystery shrouds Swedish band <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goat">GOAT</a> and their folkloric frontman <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goatman">Goatman</a> - masked World Music experimentalists with satanic genesis myths and ritualistic sounds.

<a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/gnod">GNOD</a> are another band on Rocket that have cultivated a cult like environment for their fans, with religious and political imagery a key theme of their output and immersive performances and installations.

O’Carroll set up Rocket Recordings with Chris Reeder in 1998, which they have seen grow from a small hobby - largely concerned with releasing 7” singles from their Avon-based contemporaries. From this launchpad, the label morphed through an early 21st century period in which it worked alongside other neurologically stimulating phenomena such as <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/oneida">Oneida</a> - all the while with a strong emphasis being placed on a particularly synapse-shifting approach to graphic design and packaging.

As the first decade of this new era turned into the second, and transformative outfits like GNOD, White Hills, Teeth Of The Sea, and GOAT joined the fray, the label’s identity evolved into a byword for intrepid sonic exploration irrespective of any notions of boundaries or genre. This has now expanded to take in visionary and innovative artists from Sweden (Josefin Ohrn + the Liberation, Hills, Flowers Must Die) Russia (Gnoomes) Italy (Lay Llamas, Manuthones, Julies Haircut) and Newcastle (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) alike, not to mention the transatlantic <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/mien">MIEN</a>, that features members of <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/the-horrors">The Horrors</a> and <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/the-black-angels">Black Angels</a> - dauntless mavericks all. Meanwhile, Rocket have found themselves taking a curatorial role at festivals such as Supernormal, Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia and Eindhoven Psych Lab to mention just a few.

2018 has seen Rocket Recordings turn twenty and now as ever, the forward motion of this craft remains steadfast and oblivious to all around it, the label’s vision and insights intact with sights set skyward on fresh lunacy and elegant chaos anew.

Five Minutes with Chris Reeder and John O'Carroll

Which 5 records from the past 20 years would best define your record label?

John O'Carroll: That's not a question thats easy to answer really, different albums have taken us in different directions, intentionally or not, so I don't like the idea of defining what we are about in a few sentences.

Chris Reeder: Mmmmm, tricky as for me every release is quite different and we are a label who try not to repeat ourselves with our bands. I know a lot of people just think of us as a psych label, but if you took a track off all our albums and compiled them together you will hear great diversity. But if I have to pick 5 records (really, I need way more than 5!)?

GNOD – Just Say No to the Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine

Gnoomes - <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/tschak">Tschak!</a>

Goatman – <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/goatman-rhythms">Rhythms</a>

Shit and Shine - <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/54-synth-brass-38-metal-guitar-65-cathedral">54 Synth-brass, 38 Metal guitar, 65 Cathedral</a>

Anthroprophh – <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/anthroprophh-omegaville">OMEGAVILLE</a>

Rocket have some beautiful album artwork - how much of that is down to the band and how much is down to Rocket?

CR: As both myself and John are designers the artwork has always been an important part of the release. I personally have always been obsessed with record sleeve art so to be able to design sleeves as my job I feel very lucky. We are also very lucky that most our bands want us to do the design. Some come with ideas, some want to work with a particular illustrator or artist. If I was going to have to pick one sleeve I think it would have to be GOAT - <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/goat-world-music-picture-disc">World Music</a>.

JO: Both Chris and I have different styles and takes on the artwork which can sometimes collide into one sleeve for an artist. However for the majority of releases we tend to individually work with a band as close as possible to grasp some conceptual ideas, then try to interpret the music visually to see what can reveal itself...to me it's just very informed secret codes that I have to find a way to understand.

What is happening at Rocket right now that's getting you excited?

CR: Well we have lots of great things in the pipeline, new <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs">Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs</a> album is on its way. The aforementioned <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goatman">Goatman</a> LP which is the solo project by on of the guys from <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goat">GOAT</a>. Teeth of the Sea, Josefin Ohrn, Shine &amp; Shine and Gnoomes are working on new records for us. Plus new signing <a href="https://gumtakestooth.bandcamp.com/">Gum Takes Tooth</a> have an amazing new record on it's way...

JO: We are looking forward to our twenty-first year, our coming of age ritual, lots of heady genres being smashed together, old and new friends, shared headspaces, simple headphone minds.

Being specialists in the strange, would you say Britain weirder than when you first started Rocket?

JO: Good question, hard to say as in the beginning Rocket was more locally based in Bristol, compared to now with the internet - a worldwide community, so we didn't have a bigger picture like we maybe have now. I'd like to say it is in some ways but has always been there. I like the fact that it can accept itself as being weird, we have a rich tradition of it, it should be celebrated as if its Supernormal.

CR: Haha, Britain has always been weird, it is what makes it such a unique country. Obviously these times are weird in new way, and not all good!

John: Goatman is in all of us, you've just got to find your own Goatman, I am often Goatman on a Friday night, then I let others be Goatman if they so choose - but those who choose, follow only the one Goatman, who then follows you.

<a href="http://rocketrecordings.blogspot.com/">Website</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Vlra7XzStBBVkcBXkAo4g">YouTube</a>

<a href="https://twitter.com/RocketRecording">Twitter</a>

Label Focus - Rocket

In a culture obsessed with content, saturation, and continual exposure, it's rare to find artists who prefer to lurk outside of the public eye. Thomas Pynchon is perhaps the most notable contemporary recluse—a virtually faceless figure who occasionally creeps out of hiding to offer up an elaborate novel steeped in history and warped by imagination—but for crate diggers and guitar mystics, Sweden's enigmatic GOAT may qualify as the greatest modern pop-culture mystery. Who are these masked musicians? Are they truly members of the Arctic community of Korpilombolo? Are their songs part of their isolated communal heritage? Their third studio album, Requiem, offers more questions than answers, but much like any of Pynchon's knotty yarns, the reward is not in the untangling but in the journey through the labyrinth. Western exports may have dominated the consciousness of international rock fans for the entirety of the 20th century, but our increasing global awareness has unearthed a treasure trove of transcendental grooves and spellbinding riffage from exotic and remote corners of the planet. GOAT's previous albums World Music and Commune were perfect testaments to this heightened awareness, with Silk Road psychedelia, desert blues, and Third World pop all serving as governing forces within the band's sound. But GOAT's strange amalgam isn't some cheap game of cultural appropriation—it's nearly impossible to pinpoint the exact origins of the elusive group's sound. The fact that they pledge allegiance to a spot on the periphery of our maps bolsters the nomadic quality of their sonic explorations. With Requiem, GOAT continue to rock and writhe to a beat beholden to no nation, no state. GOAT's only outright declaration for Requiem is that it is their "folk" album, and the album is focused more on their subdued bucolic ritualism than psilocybin freakouts. But GOAT hasn't completely foregone their fiery charms—tracks like "All-Seeing Eye" and "Goatfuzz" conjure the sultry heathen pulsations that ensnared us on their previous albums. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Requiem comes with the closing track "Ubuntu". The song is little more than a melodic delay-driven electric piano line, until we hear the refrain from "Diarabi"—the first song on their first album—sneak into the mix. It creates a kind of musical ouroboros—an infinite cycle of reflection and rejuvenation, death and rebirth. Much like fellow recluse Pynchon, rather than offering explanations for their strange trajectories, GOAT create a world where the line between truth and fiction is so obscured that all you can do is bask in their cryptic genius.

Requiem

Music US

Buy Goat - Requiem (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.