The Go! Team

Mashing together noisy Sonic Youth-inspired guitars, old skool hip-hop samples, jazz piano lines and funky 1970s movie soundtracks, The Go! Team were a highly infectious collision of sound and chaos since first forming in Brighton in 2000. Originally the experiments of guitarist Ian Parton, who began splicing together obscure nuggets from his record collection into primitive indie-electro soundscapes, the band developed into a six-piece, led by the bubbling enthusiasm of frontwoman Ninja (born Nkechi Ka Egenamba), a Londoner with a Nigerian father and half-Egyptian mother, and were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for their debut LP, 2004’s Thunder, Lightning, Strike. Full of colourful, explosive, good-natured spirit they sampled acts as diverse as Motown greats The Supremes, indie shoegazers The Teardrop Explodes, and Nancy Sinatra into their own unique sound, and became festival favourites in Europe with singles such as “Bottle Rocket” and “Ladyflash”. Their next album, Proof of Youth, was equally chaotic and 2011’s Rolling Blackouts featured guest appearances from Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof and Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast. Family commitments within the band limited their activity over the years, but they did reform for The Scene Between in 2015 and again in 2018 with fifth studio album Semicircle, mixing samples, live band recordings and an array of special guests, including hip-hop legend Chuck D, electro diva Solex and Bonde do Rolê ex-singer Marina Ribatski. They began the new decade in 2021 with Get Up Sequences Part One, and proved that a three-year break did not dilute their popularity when the album went top 5 on the UK Independent Albums chart. They added a second chapter to the Get Up Sequences journey two years later with part two, which packed in guest vocals from Jessie Miller, Rian Woods, and others. In 2024, they put their stamp on a rework of the Pastels' "Hold Yr Terror Close," along with takes on Cornershop and Los Bitchos.