THE GO! TEAM
Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Memphis Industries)
Happily steeped in dusty-kneed remix archaeology, the Go! Team connects disparate tendrils of late 20th-century pop culture in a dizzying manner. The key factor delineating them from the vinyl-crate crowd is their proficiency at playing what could’ve just as easily been sampled. As such, the Brighton collective is comfortable drawing upon both the raw, spontaneous energy of live performance and the cut-and-paste artistry of a killer mix. It’s a smart, well-balanced bargain between man and machine that results in sublime car-radio transcendence with the top down. While the Go! Team are not strictly instrumental, vocals are primarily used as percussive chants acting in polyrhythmic concert with hotly-mixed beats. Tunes like the effervescent, piano-driven “Feelgood by Numbers” and the soundtrack-styled “Friendship Update” are heavily predicated on the late-Sixties instrumental soul of Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass” and the Young Holt Trio’s “Soulful Strut.” The bouncy stock music of composers like Syd Dale and Alan Hawkshaw is another point of reference. “Get It Together” combines woodwinds, bells, and scratching to create idyllic bubblegum hip-hop, while “Junior Kickstart” aspires to minor league sports anthem status with its mélange of Curtis Mayfield and the Soft Boys. By the time “Everyone’s a V.I.P. to Someone” brings Thunder, Lightning, Strike to cinematic closure, you’re all out of breath and wanting to ride again. (Friday, March 18, 11pm @ Buffalo Billiards)
This article appears in March 18 • 2005.
