Below The Waste. Goat Girl

In my mind the bands Goat Girl, La Luz and Ohmme (now Finom) are tied together. All discovered through reviews by Erwin Zijleman, resulting in me buying the albums. All three have released a new record in the span of two weeks and are found on this blog with a very positive review. For La Luz and Finom that is. How does Below The Waste fair?

The answer to that question is simple. Below The Waste is a fantastic album!

Not that it is an easy album. Goat Girl has thrown in a few curve balls that go against the grain of easy listening. In fact, compared to the rest of the album they arrive like a fist in the gut. Taking your breath away, while only being able to focus on one thing: breathing; musically in this case. Around these few outliers Goat Girl has gone in search for and found beauty. Below The Waste is filled with beautiful, dreamy songs, rich in melody, sounds, arrangements and singing.

Like most post punk bands that started in the 10s Goat Girl has arrived at a point where there is not a lot left from the starting position. Below The Waste is an album that contains a host of different sorts of music that all together makes it more a work of art than just a collection of songs. The London trio obviously was not afraid to explore the options a song and the studio offered. The result is a both eclectic and rustic mix of songs, with everything in between being present as well. And, that starts right at the beginning with 'Reprise'. The kind of opener that gives nothing away and yet promises everything.

Trio Lottie Pendlebury, Rosy Jones and Holly Mullineaux play everything it seems. Whatever is needed, is being played at some point by one of them and they all sing. Naima Bock left the band at some point between the last two records. Perhaps the fact that they all play whatever is called for or is available in the studio is an explanation of what we hear on Below The Waste. Although in most songs guitar, drums, bass are at their heart, it is only the beginning of the story of each song. Whether things remain tranquil and soft or explode to giant proportions, it is all done in great taste and with love for the song at hand. Be prepared for quite some surprises. If anything Below The Waste is a musical adventure of quite some proportions.

The title makes me think at everything we throw at pigs and swines. Below all the organic waste thrown at them there must have been some pearls and Goat Girl dug them up, dusted them off and put them into the full sunshine where they gleam like pearls can. Below The Waste is an impressive album.

La Luz, Finom, Goat Girl. Three new albums in two weeks and they all delivered no little. Life can be a lot worse, dear readers.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Below The Waste here:

https://goatgirl.bandcamp.com/album/below-the-waste