[My Gang] The Go! Team - Yosemite Theme : Reco of the Week 22 Mar 11

2011年 Mar 22日 Tuesday, 13:48

Track: Yosemite Theme [ Soundcloud ]
Artist: The Go! Team
Album: Rolling Blackouts (Memphis Industries, 31 Jan 2011)
[ Spotify | We7 ]
Tags: instrumental, indie, electronica, experimental, bollywood, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic…

http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/M4cAkW7z_FI/default.jpg YouTube, audio upload

I thought I had written about The Go! Team before, when I first heard My World [YouTube], their cover of Alan Parker's The Free Life [Hype Machine], on Proof Of Youth. Clearly not.

I'm glad I waited because their third album, Rolling Blackouts, released a couple of months ago, is their best yet. My recommendation of the week is the standout track, Yosemite Theme.

Like My World, it's an instrumental, but this time, it's their own, mashing together Ennio Morricone-type country themes, a banjo, a harmonica, a harp and Bollywood, incorporating elements of Yeh Ladka Hai Allah Kaisa Hai Deewana recorded by Mohammad Rafi [YouTube] and Ab To Hai Tumse recorded by Lata Mangeshkar [YouTube, first track].

Yosemite Theme is, like all their work, relentlessly upbeat and hyper, taking on a sophistication The Go! Team have yet to fully explore. It ends on schoolground chants which are kind of by-the-by, reminding you who you're listening to.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/31316669/The+Go+Team+Go+Team.jpg

I can't honestly say I was much of a fan before. I found the lo-fi, gritty, sometimes shrill sound grating and the euphoria annoying. The inclusion of an exclamation mark in their name didn't help their case. Too hipster for me. However now, three albums down the line and their unique sound firmly established, with the confidence to explore and experiment, now I like them. They haven't lost their early unfinished lo-fi playfulness, it's still there, but now it's measured and balanced.

Musically, they're a mix of indie rock, indie pop, electronica, 80s hip-hop and old classic TV themes of the 70s, heading towards 60s girl bands and Motown, with an eye on Bollywood, Tokyo and the wild west; old school at school. In a sentence.

Like too much time spent with small children, The Go! Team on repeat are exhausting. There seem to be no breaks. This sense, along with the skipping rope chants, further underlines where they're coming from. It would be easy to dismiss them as a band for the pre-teens, but that would be to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sonically, there is much for adult ears to enjoy, albeit perhaps in small doses.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lcsiLPVeL._SS400_.jpg

The album begins with the explosive klaxon of a track T.O.R.N.A.D.O, which is too much for me and I skip. So my first track is the lovely Secretary Song, which sounds Japanese and uses real office sounds, featuring guest Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof. Firmly enticed into Go! Team world, you may as well turn the volume up and join in. Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino features on lead single Buy Nothing Day. Track after track, beat after beat, with pea whistles and cheers, it's a party and they're irresistible.

Welcome relief comes with this week's track, Yosemite Theme, the adorable j-pop Ready To Go Steady "Yeah we only just met but I'm ready to go steady", Super Triangle, which is a bit like the Alan Parker cover again, and the strange, acoustic piano piece Lazy Poltergeist.

Some critics have been quick to dismiss these tracks as failings. I think they are essential in order to fully appreciate the high energy of the other tracks. You may not hear them properly if you listen to the album in its entirety, so pick them out one by one.

Rolling Blackouts bounces along and punches the air with infectious, sunny joy. You can't help but smile at the very least. Where The Go! Team go from here, who can say. More of the same but better is always good, but I'd like to see them develop these (for them) quieter tracks.

Babs_05

最佳单曲

[My Gang] The Go! Team - Yosemite Theme : Reco of the Week 22 Mar 11

API Calls

从 Spotify 记录音乐？

[My Gang] The Go! Team - Yosemite Theme : Reco of the Week 22 Mar 11

API Calls