The Go! Team are an English, Brighton-based sextet.
With founder Ian Parton, they have pushed the boundaries of indie rock and garage rock in a unique style, incorporating two drummers and an imitative mixture of 1970s car chase themes, double dutch chants, old hip hop and loud guitars similar to the style of Sonic Youth. Their songs are a mix of live instrumentation and samples from various sources.
The Go! Team’s first full-length album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, was released in the UK and Europe on the Memphis Industries label in September 2004, to widespread critical acclaim. In June 2004, Ian Parton recruited a band in order to play as a supporting act for Franz Ferdinand. The live band became a “separate entity” to the original studio vision, as the performances became radically different from the recordings, particularly due to vocalist Ninja’s freestyled vocals, in contrast to the sampled vocals present on the album. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005. The band’s popularity increased with the re-issue of “Ladyflash” in the UK, resulting in national primetime airplay on radio stations such as BBC Radio 1,Xfm and the Atlanta, USA based 99X. They achieved further popularity when their single “Get It Together” from Thunder, Lightning, Strike was featured in trailers for the video game LittleBigPlanet, with the song eventually becoming identified with the game. The track “The Power is On” from Thunder, Lightning, Strike was included in “The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to Present”
On the 13th of May 2007, The Go! Team announced the release of their new single and subsequent album on their website. The single, “Grip Like a Vice”, was released on 2 July 2007, and the new album, called Proof of Youth, was released on 10 September in the UK and a day later in the US. The new record continues The Go! Team’s mix of samples, live band recordings and an array of special guests, including hip-hop legend Chuck D, electro diva Solex and Bonde do Rolê ex-singer Marina Ribatski. Their new single “Milk Crisis” was released via free download on 21 July 2008. They later released a 2-disc limited edition of the record with b-sides of the album including “Milk Crisis”, “Phantom Broadcast”, “A Version Of Myself”, and a remix of “Grip Like a Vice” by Black Affair. In 2008 The Go! Team contributed the song “Templates from Home” to the Survival International charity album, Songs for Survival.
In an interview with Stereogum,songwriter Ian Parton spoke about recording The Go! Team’s third album and the direction he is going in for this project. He wants to make music that “flips fidelity within the same song, and make it flow like a song should”, his idea of “schizo music”. He hopes some news about the new LP will surface in 2009.
Press:
"One of the greatest bands in the world today" NME
"Its hard to think of anything in pop music that's more fun han this" The Guardian
"Ridiculously unique" Pitchforkmedia.com
"There's no filler, just smiles all round" UNCUT