To listen to “All the Way Live,” the new single from the Go! Team (the second from their forthcoming album Semicircle) is to feel the immediate rush of joy that comes with knowing you’re experiencing peak Go! Team.
The off kilter brass of the intro gleefully leads you to the song’s primary sample, “Get Live ’83,” which was recorded by The Carver Area High School Seniors, as part of an after school rap club. The familiar cadence of 80s rap performed with unbridled enthusiasm by (female!) teenagers is so charming, and the marching band/high school hip-hop vibe with a smooth indiepop chorus performed by The Detroit Youth Choir throws it over the top. Bonus: the overwhelmingly positive lyrics hit me in a way that I needed so much more than I realized.
“All the Way Live” is a song on a mission, and that mission is to ensure you’re getting EVERYTHING you could possibly want from a Go! Team track.
Here’s a bit of back story on how the track came together from Go! Team mastermind Ian Parton: ” ‘All the Way Live’ is just an all out brass attack set to some pretty cheeky rapping. Lots of the voices are sampled from a record made as a kinda after school hip hop project by students of Carver Senior High, Chicago in 1983. We managed to track down the teacher behind the project – Mr. Harris to clear it. It wasn’t really the fact it was old skool that attracted me but the personality and cheekiness that was jumping off the vinyl. It’s always about personality over perfection for me…”
Semicircle is out on January 19th via Memphis Industries.
Catch the Go! Team live (highly recommended) in Los Angeles on Saturday March 24th @ Teragram Ballroom .
(photos c/o artist & label)