GOAT- THE GALLOWS POLE Original Score (2023)

The perfect subject matter for DISS, combining film and music! Having composed the music for the 2017 independent British horror film “Double Date”, Sweden’s GOAT seemed an unusual choice for providing the soundtrack to a new three-part TV series set in 18th century Yorkshire. (See our FILMS section)

It must be remembered that this is part soundtrack only. There’s a feeling of suspense and dread created by the synths and drones, all 11 minutes of it on ‘Mind is Like the Sky’. ‘Field Raga’ provides a little relief from the tension with its echoing flute. ‘Jazzman’ is a good stand- alone listen as some guitar fingerpicking appears and a great Goat groove is established. The centrepiece is ‘The Gate is Open (The Temple Lies Within)’.

Writer/ Director Shane Meadows also used some of Goat’s pre-existing music for the soundtrack and the album starts with the classic single ‘Let it Burn’ (2018) which I believe has become a bit of a favourite on BBC’s Radio 6. ‘Gathering of Ancient Tribes’ was taken from Goat’s second album “Commune”.

The Bandcamp commentary states the screenplay is a “perfect fit for the band’s mystical, pagan aesthetic, having cultivated a mythology in hailing from the remote village of Korpilombo in northern Sweden.” I would not totally agree with that (see FILMS section). It is interesting to note that, instead of watching the film, Goat’s starting point was to get inspiration from reading Benjamin Myers’ source novel.