The Go! Team are back and for their first song since 2015’s The Scene Between. The Brighton band arrive with ‘Semicircle Song’ with a marching band, The Detroit Youth Choir.
The band’s mastermind Ian Parton took inspiration from Northern soul, Japanese indie-pop and old-school hip hop and went to Detroit to record with a marching band and choir. Where The Scene Between was a solo record, forthcoming Semicircle features live players Simone Odaranile (drums) , Angela ‘Maki’ Won-Yin Mak (vocals), as well as two original members, guitarist Sam Dook and rapper Ninja. Annelotte de Graaf (aka Amber Arcades), previous collaborator Julie Margat (aka Lispector) amnd others also feature.
Ian Parton:
“With “Semicircle Song” I was trying to take the technicolour feel of a marching band into a more psychedelic place, reclaiming that sound from patriotic or sporty bullshit and harnessing its toughness and power. Brass which takes your head off, bouncy xylophones, offbeat handclaps and toms hopping in the gaps – I hoped it would be recognisably The Go! Team but unlike any song we’d done before.
“Something more about the space between the notes. But when the notes hit, you make them count. Vocals were laid down by a bunch of teenagers in Detroit, which is a musical mecca for me. In the middle 8 I thought it would add a kinda interstellar cheekiness if they each introduced themselves, and their star sign.”
The Go! Team SEMICIRCLE tracklisting
Mayday
Chain Link Fence
Semicircle Song
Hey!
The Answer’s No – Now What’s the Question?
Chico’s Radical Decade
All the Way Live
If There’s One Thing You Should Know
Tangerine / Satsuma / Clementine
She’s Got Guns
Plans are Like a Dream U Organise
Getting Back Up
The Go! Team live
09 Feb – Glasgow, Oran Mor
10 Feb – Leeds, Wardrobe
11 Feb – Brighton, Haunt
15 Feb – London, Electric Ballroom
16 Feb – Newcastle, Riverside
17 Feb – Manchester, Gorilla
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
