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Jan 16, 2018 The Go! Team By Stephen Mayne

For a group drawing from diverse influences and determined to base records around different ideas, there’s a remarkable consistency to The Go! Team’s output. Ian Parton’s Brighton project that began in his parent’s house and grew into a glorious mishmash of samples, live instrumentation, nonsense chants, and energetic vocals has never been less than distinctive.

Like a party on a boat in the middle of a hurricane, their music is enjoyed less by picking out individual elements and more in the way it combines to ride over all barriers. Semicircle, their fifth full-length, and first in three years, offers up everything from throwback hip-hop stylings on “She’s Got Guns” to the peppy yearning of “Plans Are Like a Dream U Organise” and the scratchy calypso of “If There’s One Thing You Should Know.” It finds a group comfortable in a space of its own.

The buzzing energy of previous records remains as well. The prime example is “Mayday,” which bursts into life tapping out the famous call for help in Morse code before swarming it with a barrage of driving instruments. More than usual, different sections do become apparent on Semicircle though. Parton’s conceit here is that of a marching band gone rogue. The steady rolling gait of such an outfit thumps out, opening “Semicircle Song” and offering a calibrated flight of fancy on “Chico’s Radical Decade.” It’s a neat idea that doesn’t always come off. By breaking up sections, it takes from the cohesive chaos that really allows The Go! Team to shine.

Their music works best when left to freewheel across genre and structure. That doesn’t always happen here, which is why this fifth outing is merely enjoyable, not up there touching the sublime as Parton and his merry crew have offered before. (www.thegoteam.co.uk)

Author rating: 6.5/10