Since they first fired up their sampler in the early 2000s, the Go! Team have built up quite a legacy of breathlessly exciting, empowering, and fun music. 2021's Get Up Sequences, Pt. 1 is another fine addition to their CV. With a similar feel to their previous release -- 2018's Semi-Circle -- the album makes use of the band's time-tested template of marching band funk, loud guitars, sparkling keys and flutes, and beats tight enough to bounce a quarter on. While it was being recorded, the group's main sonic architect Ian ...
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Since they first fired up their sampler in the early 2000s, the Go! Team have built up quite a legacy of breathlessly exciting, empowering, and fun music. 2021's Get Up Sequences, Pt. 1 is another fine addition to their CV. With a similar feel to their previous release -- 2018's Semi-Circle -- the album makes use of the band's time-tested template of marching band funk, loud guitars, sparkling keys and flutes, and beats tight enough to bounce a quarter on. While it was being recorded, the group's main sonic architect Ian Parton went through some devastating hearing loss issues, but one would never guess it from the sheer joy that bursts out of the songs. Long-time vocalist/rapper Ninja is back again and she gives her all to the punchy "Pow," which sounds like a baby Bomb Squad production and provides fine rapping and vocals to many more tracks. Also on board is young Detroit rapper Indigo Yaj, who radiates her way through the Jackson 5-styled romp "Cookie Scene," as well as vocalists from the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences and Kansas City Girls Choir. Detroit teenager Jessie Miller's charming vocals on the album's sweetest song. "A Bee Without Its Sting." is a definite highlight as well as a heartwarming example of the way Parton's idea to pair innocent vocals with sunny hooks and breezy melodies works so well and never seems to get old. Along with these quintessential Go! Team songs are a few that balance all the glee with some melancholy. New bandmember Niadzi Muzira's softly intoned vocals on the gentle indie pop with sad flutes and moody horns track "We Do It But Never Know Why" are a tender diversion; "World Remember Me Now" slows the tempo just a touch, adds some wistfulness to the vocals (as sung by Ninja and the KC Choir), and comes out sounding perfect. Add in a couple of fun instrumentals -- most notably "Tame the Great Plains," a slice of the Wild West with John Wayne looking out over a black-and-white sunset as he lopes along -- and it's yet another classic Go! Team album. No surprises, no alterations, no problem. It's reassuringly great music made by a group who know exactly what they are doing and aren't afraid to keep doing it and doing it well. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi
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