Speaking in tongues

>> Goa boys noise it up

PHONETIC AESTHETIC: Philippe Lambert and J Robot

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Goa’s vocalist Philippe Lambert may toss off descriptions of his band’s music as trance or minimal techno but it would be a fairly safe bet to say that Goa’s new record 3 would piss off any self-described techno or trance head hooked on syrupy synth sounds. Oftentimes, their music can unnerve and shake foundations, but it shares trance’s tendency to get transcendental in its wash of lo-fi processed sounds and repetitive tribal beats, with an almost krautrock feel to its primitivism.

Hardly a prolific band with an ambitious release schedule, it’s a rarity for Goa to even play a show let alone release a CD. The last Goa show dates back to 2005, when they played the Earthunder festival with Lightning Bolt and Usaisamonster. Their LP Crystal Damage saw the light of day in 2005, yet the new CD features recordings that date back to 2002.

“Well, like any art project, there really is no money, so when interest begins to wane, we just move on to something else,” says Lambert. “It wasn’t until recently, when I got together with [keyboardist] J Robot and we started playing some old Goa songs, that we realized that even the old songs can work as a three-piece and just got really excited to play live under the Goa name again.”

To the uninitiated, Goa’s music may stick out a bit as Lambert does not meet the typical requirements of a vocalist, choosing to work phonetically as opposed to singing in any established language. Lambert’s vocal style can be traced to French prog band Magma, whose main member Christian Vander actually invented his own language, or other phonetically driven singers such as the Boredoms’ Yamantaka Eye or Can’s Damo Suzuki. “I guess I’ve never been that interested in words. If you don’t have words, the music can be just that much more open-ended and spontaneous. A guitarist can be more abstract by picking his tunings and sound, and that’s all I’m trying to do.”

With Mulyo and Captain Baby Killer at
Zoobizarre tonight, Thursday, Feb. 21, 9 p.m., $6