The Go! Team

If ever there were an album that captured the exuberance of an elementary schoolyard during recess, this would sure be it. The Go! Team are a mysterious crew of five Brits who take a sample from every facet of pop music and mould it into something truly of their own. Last year they blew away the competition on the exceptional Estuary English compilation (released on Memphis Industries), and while those two tracks are featured on Thunder Lightning Strike their plane of excellence would somehow be missed if they were absent. “Ladyflash” is top notch, bouncing like an unwound coil playing hopscotch and doing the robot to electro, all while playing its favourite Candi Staton joint. “Junior Kickstart” morphs Sonic Youth’s off-key guitars with the Memphis Horns, in a perfect marriage between noisy indie rock and Stax-certified soul. The Go! Team definitely refuse to keep it simple, but the mash-up of so many different samples blends together so flawlessly. “The Power Is On” has so many layers alongside the jump rope sing-along there’s an overwhelming feeling to just bow down to their knack for such ideas. Even when they keep it simple with “Feelgood by Numbers,” they create something that can only be construed as the Peanuts theme song remixed by a well-practiced and matured Zit Remedy. Let the drooling begin.