The Go! Team
Proof of Youth

The polychromatic artwork that envelops the new work by the British group Go! Team is well-suited to the season that will soon brighten our days. A true explosion of colors is the iridescent mirror of the music contained in this second album—released in the fall of 2007—by the Brighton collective, which comes about three years after the previous debut album. A series of colored pencils arranged radially displayed on the CD further amplify the feeling of joy and revelry that hovers throughout all 36 minutes of the album. Enthusiasts of mp3s will inevitably have to settle for the acoustic side only and forgo the iconographic apparatus, which is minimalist yet eloquently an integral complement of the project.

The guidelines outlined in the previous work are here integrated and brought to maturity through an exemplary stratification of sound with overlaps that, on one hand, can sometimes render the musical structure monotonous and cloying, but on the other hand, give back an inevitable sensation of lively effervescence akin to a bottle of champagne just uncorked under a sky lit by fireworks.

The presence of the Rapper's Delight Band kids directly harks back to the early eighties, when there were the Musical Youth (a recurring noun) proposing this kind of musical party, made up of choirs and continuous hip-hop refrains dipped in a danceable sauce. Various sampling, clap-handing, and musical happenings do the rest. Compared to them, the Polyphonic Spree seem like they've just come out of a Valium-based psychoanalytic session. This kind of music is ill-suited to fans of the intimate and minimalist, but I can assure you that every so often, even though I am quite a lover of rather melancholic music, diving into a well-shaken musical cocktail can only raise your adrenaline levels and consequently your mood.

The indiscriminate use of wind instruments might tip the balance towards a certain slightly palpable soul-funky vein, but light-years away from the Motown-rooted school. After all, times change, and with them, musical tastes and perceptions, hence I find it right and sensible to update certain stereotypes to the current twenty-first century.

Music in color that invites the listener to clap their hands and shake their butt. Try to stay still if you can. A test of youth passed with flying colors.