|
The Go! Team For all the talk about
hip-hop cool the genre has always had an endearing dork streak that kids
understand immediately. Early rap singles were expected to be novelties not just
because they had no melodies to speak of, but also because people remembered a
long history of silly one-off hits with rhythmic talking instead of words
("Convoy" and "Devil Went Down to Georgia" were two biggies
from the 70s). Spitting rhymes isn't just the province of the hard; any kid
who ever had the pleasure doing the "Miss Susie" patty-cake rap
("Miss Susie had a steamboat/ the steamboat had a bell/ Miss Susie went to
heaven/ The steamboat went to…/ Hello operator/ please give me number
nine…") knows it's an instant-gratification blast. Brighton, England's The
Go! Team (not to be confused with Calvin Johnson's revolving project from the
80s) has a deep love of the sugar-rush rap of childhood. They're a six-piece
band with two drum kits, guitar, harmonica, bass, keyboards, turntable, sampler,
and one official rapper, though the whole band seems to enjoy shouting along.
They've released a steady stream of singles in the last two years, and Thunder,
Lightning, Strike is their debut full length. The word that first
came to mind when I heard The Go! Team was "Avalanches" as in, the
Australian sampling collective. The bands share a similar reverence for AM pop
kitsch like lush, sweeping curtains of strings and instrumental flute breaks,
but The Go! Team are way more manic with a dose of the groovy bombast Pizzicato
Five like to channel, an of course a good chunk of the sound on Thunder,
Lightning, Strike was performed by the band. On some songs here there is so much
going on at once and its all flying by so fast you can't tell where to listen,
but no matter where you focus it comes up aces. The opening
"Panther Dash", a big and bold instrumental theme driven by booming
drums, surf guitar, and harmonica that shows clearly that The Go! Team is a
proper rock band, is the least referential track here. The following "Ladyflash"
is where the genre deck gets shuffled. The trashy floor tom rolls are the sort
of sound Phil Spector always aimed for, the female vocals split the difference
between early 60s girl groups and mid-70s disco diva, the strings are pure Love
Unlimited Orchestra, the guitar is sampled from Archie Bell's "Tighten
Up," and then the short rapped bits sound like a cheerleader routine. The
team spirit is even higher on the ridiculously catchy "Huddle
Formation," and a similar blend is at work on "The Power is On"
but both the group chanting and the sheer loudness of the drums are cranked up a
notch, and claps from a half-dozen hands seal the deal on the beat. Catch these
tracks in the wrong mood and its headache city, but most of the time it's
insanely infectious fun. When The Go! Team dial it down, which they do occasionally, they impart an air of playful nostalgia. "Get it Together" has the whimsy and easy melodicism that powered mid-90s indie poppers like Land of the Loops and Sukpatch. "Everyone's a V.I.P. to Someone" sounds like a first-rate vintage TV theme developed to single length, perhaps emotionally connected to "Taxi," but with a booming swell to carry the song out on a happy note. These guys couldn't do down and depressing no matter how hard they tried. They're not wired that way. The happy notes are what The Go! Team is all about in the end, and Thunder, Lightning, Strike, though it's undeniably corny and though it's a mish-mash of styles in various states of decay, is filled with them. Mark Richardson (Back) |