The Go! Team share new single “Mayday”

On January 30, 2017

In News

THE GO! TEAM SHARE NEW SINGLE “MAYDAY”

NEW ALBUM SEMICIRCLE RELEASED 19TH JANUARY 2018 ON MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES

BAND SET TO PLAY FIRST SHOWS FOR THREE YEARS IN FEBRUARY 2018

The Go! Team will release their new album SEMICIRCLE on 19th January 2018 through Memphis Industries and today they share a new single in the form of “Mayday”.

Premiering via Stereogum, “Mayday” is a Morse code-inspired soul belter about a love emergency, in the proud lineage of “Rescue Me” and “SOS”.

Band leader Ian Parton: “I’ve always wanted to do a song with Morse code in it and when I hit upon the idea of applying a mayday distress signal to love problems I was surprised it had never been done before. Once you got that idea you can really lay on the metaphors: “hit by a category 5”, “sinking fast in the sea I cried”, “come in – do you read me”. I’ve always loved those soul songs which equate boy trouble to emergencies – pure Shangri-Las style melodrama, backcombed to oblivion.”

“Mayday” follows first single “Semicircle Song”. That was announced via Pitchfork, and its video co-directed by Parton along with his neighbor Bosie Vincent, described by NPR Music as “a psychedelic wash of bright colors and marching bands… (and charming guest vocals) from members of the Detroit Youth Choir.”

Unlike 2015’s The Scene Between – which was essentially a solo project that followed the dissolution of the previous Go! Team lineup – SEMICIRCLE finds Parton collaborating with current live players Simone Odaranile (drums) and 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), and a crew of unexpected musicians feature throughout.

In keeping with the album’s marching band theme, Ian stacked up sousaphones, glockenspiels and steel drums, mic’ing them all from a distance to recreate that gymnasium sound. The effect is a kaleidoscopic cacophony, almost as if the sound itself is bent and refracted in the metallic curves of a trumpet; comforting and intoxicating at the same time.

Ian is keen to emphasise that the vibrant utopia he and his cohorts have conjured up on their fifth album is not an escapist fantasy but a potentially achievable goal. “It’s about reminding yourself of the good things in life,” he says. “We don’t want to be dumbly optimistic and say, ‘Hey, isn’t everything great!’ but there’s something to be said for just getting on with it, for getting organised and not letting the fuckers get you down. Party for your right to fight!”

Pre-order SEMICIRCLE on limited edition Neon Pink Vinyl, CD, Digital and Cassette here.

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 recently announced a UK and EU headline tour for February 2018, which includes headline shows at Electric Ballroom, London (15th) and Gorilla, Manchester (17th).

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

22 Feb – Amsterdam, Paradiso

02 March – Cologne, Gebäude 9

03 March – Hamburg, Nochtspeicher

04 March – Berlin, Bi Nuu

Tickets are on sale now from www.thegoteam.co.uk.