On Repeat: The Go! Team: "Grip Like a Vice" [Stream]
With their moderately large international audience and handful of licensing deals, it stood to reason that the next wave of Go! Team material would be tighter, smoother, and slicker, more willing to play by the rules of big-selling pop. But on the evidence here, the band's leader Ian Parton has lost none of his interest in trying to cram about four different songs into one four-minute single. "Grip Like a Vice" sounds like the band is riding a shopping cart with bum wheel as it zooms dangerously down a bumpy hill. Synthetic handclaps rush by so fast they verge on applause, drums are less concerned with keeping time than making noise, the keyboards sound more like a warning than melody, and rapper Ninja, reeling off the late-80s hip-hop party starting clichés, is kept down in the mix, where she sounds more like a human sample than a master of ceremonies.
The single's B-sides will include a cover of Sonic Youth's "Bull With a Heather", a remix by ex-Beta Band leader Steve Mason, and a new Go! Team track.
[single; due 07/02/07 on Memphis Industries; from a forthcoming yet-unnamed LP, also on Memphis Industries]