Goat: Goat (splatter) LP

The Ouroborus - that is, the icon of the snake or dragon eating its own tail - appears to some a statement of the brutality of nature. Commonly, it's taken simply to mean the endless cycles of death and rebirth that characterise life on this planet. As such, it's an image that looms large in the world of Goat, the ever-mysterious and endlessly revivifying collective whose latest album marks another adventure above and beyond this particular plane of reality. This may be a band that has named albums both "Requiem" and "Oh Death", yet this eponymous salvo proves yet again that transcendence and metamorphosis are their watchwords. "Goat" sees this ever-unpredictable outfit summoning rhythmically-driven rituals in unmistakable, uplifting and scintillating style, equally adept at ignitiing dancefloors and expanding minds. ‘One More Death’ and ‘Goatbrain’ are spectacular curtain-raisers, embodying a hedonistic spirit driven by incisive funk and possessed by merciless fuzz/wah-drenched guitar. Yet elsewhere, the band's love of hip hop is the fuel for the end-credits-epic album closer ‘Ourobourus’, which marries infectious chant to breathless Lalo Schifrin-style breakbeat action. And which also means ultimately, like the titular oldest allegorical symbol in alchemy, we're right back where we started.