Thunder Lightning Strike

The Go! Team might just have one of the catchiest albums of the year, "Thunder Lightning Strike." Definitely the catchiest of the summer. Despite the current wave of nu-Manchester or new wave bands that are popping up, this Brighton band dips into a different musical well.

Their unique sound is made up of sunshine funk, big beats, peculiar samples, adrenaline-pumping rock, TV theme songs and the occasional cheerleader. (Yes, cheerleader) It opens with a charged trashcan drum song, "Panther Dash," before slipping into a series of funky, blippy grooves.

Those sounds run through the entire album, alternating between hyperkinetic rock'n'roll and colorful electronic big beats. It's all jammed with harmonica, horn, what sounds like a sitar, and hip-hop flourishes. And whatever style it is, it's danceable from beginning to end, densely packed with fun beats and wild rhythms.

In fact, it's hard to find a part of "Thunder Lightning Strike" that isn't packed with at least two kinds of sound at once. In fact, it sounds like they gathered every single instrument they could get their hands on, dosed them with Red Bull and planted them in front of a bunch of 1970s TV shows. That retro sound isn't a gimmick, however -- even if you don't have nostalgia for that TV era, the sound is wildly entertaining.

Their hyperdrivin' guitars might sound repetitive, if they didn't have lots of samples and extra instrumentation thrown in, including blaring trumpets and some explosive drums. And the flourishes range from glockenspiel to horns to harmonica. Without them, the music would seem a little too bare and ordinary.

And cheerleaders, of course -- there are some rousing cheerleader chants, exploding from the foot-stomping "Huddle Formation" and playfully chaotic "The Power Is On." It sounds like a football-game-turned-rave, with just the right amount of energetic messiness.

Imagine the Propellerheads on a sunny day, and you have the basic sound of the Go! Team. "Thunder Lightning Strike" -- perfect for summer partying.

Track 5 on "Thunder, Lightning, Strike", "Get It Together" is the hit theme song to a hit TV show that hasn't been made yet and doesn't yet realize it's the perfect song for them. Until then, it's a perfectly bright, mood-enhancing, some might say Power Song, inevitably annoying when you just want to be left alone to stew in one's own crap, but you just can't stop hearing it everywhere.

But it isn't everywhere -- yet.

Get into it before someone you hate buys the rights to associate it with their product and ruins it for you.

And the entire album extends that good feeling. I imagine myself running around the yard with kids to this album. I imagine myself joining the coolest cheerleading team ever to dance to this album -- and I usually hate the idea of myself cheerleading. I imagine every minute I listen to this album is another minute banishing gloom from my life.

Where the heck's the buzz for a work as positive and genuine and accessible as this???

People I talk to keep complaining about how everything they hear sounds the same, but almost no one goes out of their way EVEN JUST A LITTLE to find great stuff by folks making new, exciting POP MUSIC like the Go! Team. This album still has time to prove itself in the marketplace in the US, although it has been around a long while in the UK, but The Go! Team are just one of dozens of artists releasing albums in the last few years that have hit the proverbial wall in terms of the tight control very few channels (distribution, media, labels) have on music. It's not James Joyce, people, but neither is it the bland crap people buy because they only put money down for what they're sold; they only get what they're told to.

Saying that will probably cost me points from people rating this review, but I'm frustrated by the amount of hype it takes to get people to think something is any good. Folks won't change their habits, and put most of their hard earned dollars into the same-stuff-different-day, all the while complaining about the very system they perpetuate.

Meanwhile, most of you are missing great fun stuff like Go! Team, and Michael Franti, The Decemberists, Ben Lee, OK Go, Art Brut, Bob Mould, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, The Blue Van, The BellRays, Pansy Division, The Raveonettes, Silversun Pickups, Bouncing Souls, Girlyman, Disappear Fear, The Bobbleheads, Willy Mason, Bright Eyes, Coheed & Cambria, Louis XIV (y'all will probably come to know those last three sooner rather than later), Matisyahu, Gogol Bordello, Architecture In Helsinki, and even the latest by Garbage. Among others: I'm just scratching the surface here. (While we're on variety, don't get hung up on the variety of genres represented in that list - it's all -- well, I was gonna say Hits Radio-friendly, but hits radio has been nothing but hostile to anything not already pre-sold and pre-digested, for that matter, for decades.) There's so much great music out there ignored by the powers that be, so you gotta find it yourself.

Don't wait to be sold. The old paradigms are over. You can find out about great music without dealing with media who have lost your trust. Go to bands' websites. (Start with those listed, perhaps.) Listen online to alternative media (I recommend a search on "altrockradio", but there are many others.)

The Go! Team are actually a collective of musicans from the UK, but you would think 'Thunder Lightning Strike' was the product of a think-tank of production wizards pushing rock-based electronica to it's highest level. This in fact isn't electronica, but it does embody that same inventiveness to create dense sheets of sound.

'Thunder Lightning Strike' combines the infectious melodies of 70's soundtracks, everything from TV programs, commercials, to Schoohouse Rock. But don't let this fool you, this CD still rocks, self-contained energy unleashed as animated pastiches of sound. The album is sprinkled with music-confection, eg, bouncy pianos, horns, and harmonica, almost like the playful spirit of Japanese pop/rock meeting big-beat artists like The Chemical Brothers and The Propellerheads.

The template is much like The Avalanches, but more intoxicating, fusing 70's orchestral kistch with rock swagger. Probe a little further and you'll detect hints of jazz/lounge film-scores, electronic grooves of Lemon Jelly, quirky turntablism of Cornelius, and the gung-ho chants of Bis. Running at just under 40 minutes, 'Thunder Lightning Strike' was the only release that actually made me stand-up and take notice. Innovative, lush, dynamic, and just plain brilliant. Never heard of this? Now you have. It's your turn to take a listen.

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