Quite a while ago I got my hands on Mark Goodall's book Gathering of the Tribe – Music and Heavy Conscious Creation (Headpress, 2013). I thought I'd read it and write the review without much ado. Boy, was I wong! Actually, I'm still stuck in the book... Help! But this is not because that it's hard to penetrate or difficult in any way. On the contrary. I'm still stuck because I want to.
Goodall's HEAVY journey through a multitude of various musical styles is simply so brilliant that I want to stay in this deranged stream of wonders and frights forever. What appears at first to be an eclectic guide for record collectors is in actual fact a real mind opener in itself. Not only because of the incredible weirdness Goodall describes, but also because of how he does it (and his friends too). This is a brilliant, illuminating and highly well written book.
Try this out for size: Cosmic Sounds, Jazz and the Spirit World, Freaky Folk, The Law of Octaves: Esoteric Music, Psych-out and Countercultural Occult, Sorcery and the Cinema, The Devil's Interval, Mindfuckers and Electric Storm in Hell: Weird Soundscapes...
What sounds like a free form poem from a creative dark Beatnik mind is in fact the chapter listing.
Why "Beware of Brilliance"? Well, I can assure you that if you methodically not only read this book but also listen to the music it describes, you will be changed. It will be irrevocable. You have been warned...
I can say no more. I want to dive right into the book again, and listen to the hellishly divine sounds it promotes. Maybe we'll meet in there somewhere, between Stockhausen, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Graeme Allwright, Gurdjieff, Louise Huebner, Furekaaben, Jim Kweskin and a host of others... Goodbye for now!
Gathering of the Tribe – Music and Heavy Conscious Creation
By Mark Goodall, with Mick Farren (RIP), Jill Good, David Kerekes, Richard Woodcock and others. HeadPress, London, 2013.
All material on this blog is copyright © Carl Abrahamsson, unless otherwise stated.
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