Ritual is the third volume in the seemingly open-ended Gathering of the Tribe series. The book series finds lecturer & filmmaker Mark Goodall looking into the mysterious power of sound and tone within music. As with all of the books in the series, Goodall chooses a selection of albums from a decidedly genre/ release date varied pool- with the focus for this Vol, as its title suggests, Ritual based- moving between the obvious & less obvious.

The book is fitting the size of a seven-inch- with a page count of ninety-two pages.  It takes in a mix of black & blue texts- with a reproduction of each of the fourteen album's cover art/ related pictures in colour. Each of the write-ups runs between six and ten pages a piece, with a good & even balance of track descriptions, album themes, and details of the records creators- just giving you enough to crack your curiosity.

The book opens with a four-page introduction talking about the general theme of ritual, and how it can be presented in an album form. We then open up for a classic example of ritual put into sonic form with Black Mass by Lucifer- which was a 1971 album from electronic composer/Moog pioneer Mort Garson, who with the album attempted to recreate a black & satanic mass in sonic form- and very much mangers it.

As we move through the book we go from the 1980’s The Voodoo Gods Of Hati by the Divine Horseman- which brings together Haitian/African rhythms with other genres, with subtle touches of ambient sound & dialogue. We have the radical speech-based recordings of 1969’s The Fourth Reich- The Communizes Exposed  By Their Own Words: Revolution Today In The USA- highlighting how ritual practices and performance can used in the services of revolution.

Moving towards the latter part of the book we have La Psychosomnie Methode Contre L’insomnie. Which is a 1970 album which mixes the voice of infamous French stage hypnotist Dominique Webb with sound effects & electronica.

Once again Ritual presents us with a varied & intriguing selection of albums- another most worthy book in this great series. I very much look forward to seeing where Goodall goes with his next book. To  buy this, and the other volumes in this series drop by Headpress