The Go! Team are:
Sam Dook - guitar
Chi - drums
Silke - multi-instumentalist (and second drums)
Jamie Bell - bass
Ninja - vox
Ian P - Bandleader, electric guitar and ***ed up harmonica
This album isn't like anything you've heard before. OK, maybe it is, but who cares, go and buy the thing anyway! It's 35 minutes of feedback, horns and colliding drumkits, guaranteed to make even the most sombre of parties turn into a frenzied orgy of drugs and wild sex. OK, maybe I lied a bit there, but really, you have to hear this album...
The tracks are mainly short and very sweet, with the longest stretching to just under 5 minutes, and unlike the frenzied 8 minute punkfucnk workouts of other electronic/dance/rock artists such as !!! and LCD Soundsystem, it doesn't need to last an outrageous amount of time to get you dancing. Instead it makes you jump and thrash around the room like a crazed loon, until it comes to a sudden halt, leaving you wondering just what the *** this stuff is.
1. Panther Dash - 3/5
A great opening track, blues harmonica, breakbeats and screaming synths overlapping to the background of air raid sirens, gives you an idea of what the rest of the album will be like without being too intense a first song.
2. Ladyflash - 4/5
One of the singles released from this album, and also the second longest song, it's a lot dancier than the opening track, with Ninja's unusual motown/rap vocals making their first appearance on the album. Handclaps, bleeping synths and a suprisingly mellow string section, showing off their hip-hop and dance influences. Also features some class drumming and an unwarranted pan pipe solo towards the end.
3. Feel Good By Numbers - 3.5/5
Shortest track on the album at under 2 minutes, starts off with a jazzy piano riff which continues throughout. No vocals, and nothing that stands out too much compared to the rest of the album, but still a good song.
4. The Power Is On - 5/5
3 minutes 14 seconds of sheer bliss. Greatest track on an already great album. You can't understand what Ninjas singing, but who cares when it sounds this good? 2 drummers, both live and in the studio, add to the chaotic hip-hop feel, as do the brass section who suddenly seem to appear halfway through the song. Live it also features a Sonic Youth-esque ending, with discordant guitars and the huge feedback solo every song needs.
5. Get It Together - 4/5
The pan-pipes make their second appearance, on this laid back (well, as laid back as they get) groovy funk number. Catchy without vocals, and proof that not all electronic rock has to be drum-machine beats. Features the best ending to a track on the album with the random scratch solo.
6. Junior Kickstart - 4.5/5
The guitars make their first noticeable appearance on the album. While live they take up far much more space in the sound, the keyboards and drums dominate them on most of the album. This track however, starts off with a riff which would not appear out of place on a Sonic Youth album, before it warps into a collage of harmonicas, jangly riffs and a trumpet hook that sounds like it's been stolen from Beyonce's Crazy In Love. Also has my favourite drum sound to date, with some wonderfully 'hollow' sounding snare. Turns into...
7. Air Raid Gtr. -/5
Throwaway track consisting of 30 seconds of a guitar pretending to be an air raid siren. Pointless, but bridges the gap between Junior Kickstart and...
8. Bottle Rocket - 4/5
Most unusual intro yet, featuring Ninja rapping over Chi and Silke and what appears to be a mexican-feel big band. No worse for any of that, with definite "Holy crap, what the hell is that?" factor. Perfect for parties.
9. Friendship Update - 3/5
Third longest track at 4 minutes. Funky bass riff sequing into the usual keyboard melody that seems to be the norm for them. Not a standout track at all, could have really benefited from some vocals over the top. Is still good for a listen, one of the more relzxing moments, with the drums taking a backseat for once.
10. Huddle Formation - 4/5
Back to the upbeat feel that the Go! Team do so well, the song kicks straight in with some seriously nice synth and sampled handclaps over the top of Chi's fabulous drumming (Chi and Silke have to be my favourite drummers around at the moment). Has one of the catchier hooks on the album.
11. Everyone's A VIP To Someone - 5/5
Perfect ending to my favourite album I've heard this year. The most mellow track on there, Ian P seems to have taken the riff from Last of the Summer Wine (of all things) and put it onto harmonica over banjos, acoustic guitars and a rather tasteful trumpet solo. Wakes up a bit more towards the end, with the keyboards coming in with a great string lead over the top of everything and the drums coming forward a bit more. I can't stress how much the band relies on the chaotic drum sound you get from two drummers, and it improves them immeasureably.
This is their debut album, and I can say, without a single trace of irony, that they really are my new favourite band. Those of you with nothing better to do on a friday night may have noticed them on Later with Jools Holland, where they quite rightly ripped the place up and even had The Fall dancing to them. I hope they're going to get a lot more recognition this year (although not too much, we wouldnt want them pulling any watered-down mainstream tricks on us...)
I can predict (hopefully) that they will cause an absolute riot at the festivals this year, they're doing the John Peel stage @ Glasto and headlining Carling stage @ leeds and reading, where I shall hopefully be seeing them.
If you're into the electronic/rock thing, but find bands like the faint and the rapture a bit boring, try these. They're still highly influenced by dance, but there's a lot of hip-hop in there too, and they describe themselves as Indie Hip/hop. And if anyone sees them at Leeds festival, I'll be the short kid with long hair dancing like a pissed up twat at the front :D.
