Best way to recreate this patterned twisting path?

Hio, I’ve been fussing around with Illustrator for a few hours now trying to recreate this graphic for a poster:

Capture

I can manage to figure out the freeform gradient, and the general shape of each segment, but I’m not sure about how I could make the segments work as a brush definition so that i can apply it to a path.

A pattern brush isn’t really doing what I thought it would, but then again I’m very inexperienced with brush definitions and patterns. If anyone would like to have a swing at it or just chime in with any guesses, I’d appreciate any tips or tidbits!

p.s. The attached image is by timothy luke, made for A.G. Cook’s 7G album.

Thanks a bunch,
Josh

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It just looks like a rope pattern to me.