The Go! Team have always had that all but the ‘kitchen sink’ about them and, for some, the relentlessly upbeat, erm, beats, may prove to be a step too far. But for the rest of us, beaming from ear to ear, we’ll set about cutting some rug via ‘A Memo For Maceo’ and we will join the huge rump wiggling which will no doubt accompany ‘Pow!’ across many a dance floor, “We don’t want to sit down/It’s time to throw down”, indeed!
Let’s be clear, if you were not paying proper attention and someone had dropped a Go! Team track on for a quick spin, you would be perfectly right to assume that some savvy TV exec has respun the theme to Sesame Street, such are the upbeat vibes and marching-band horns.
In fact that this record blares right out of Brighton and not Brooklyn is testament to the standard of production on display.
De facto ‘bandleader’ Ian Parton suffered significant hearing loss during the recording of the album when he contracted a condition known as Meniere’s disease (a disorder of the inner ear that can lead to dizzy spells (vertigo) and hearing loss) and you can feel some of the frustrations bubbling away under the surface. Take ‘Cookie Scene’ as a case in point, flute-drive rap and guest verses from Indigo Yaj jostle for place with the trademark pep and perk.
Or try ‘Freedom Now’s’ urgent psych-rock and sirens instrumental on for size and see if you don’t hear something new and refreshing. Parton’s magpie-like cut and paste sampling means that you are never far from Motown, jangle pop, hip-hop, Bollywood, and reggae, and come the climax of ‘A Bee Without Its Sting’, if you are not a Go! Team convert, you never will be.
As Parton has himself said, Get Up Sequences Part One is a “musical life raft” for these most troubling of times.
It’s probably not going to garner as much acclaim as the lauded Thunder, Lightning, Strike, but as far as part ones go, this’ll do nicely.
Get Up Sequences Part One is out now on Memphis Industries.
