Post by krburg on Oct 15, 2010 19:08:03 GMT
Best Coast, Deerhoof Guest on New Go! Team LP
Hear new track "T.O.R.N.A.D.O." and read our interview with mastermind Ian Parton
When Ian Parton started the Go! Team, it was a one-man sample-collage project. But Parton soon recruited a band and learned how to turn his tracks into a festival-crushing live act-- thanks in no small part to the furiously energetic female rapper Ninja. Now, Parton is getting ready to release the Go! Team's new album, Rolling Blackouts. It's due January 31 from Memphis Industries. Up above, you can hear "T.O.R.A.N.A.D.O.", an album track that makes heavy use of funky horn stabs and Ninja's double-dutch cadences.
Pitchfork recently caught up with Parton to talk about the new album, gospel choirs, and Die Antwoord-- who also have a rapper named Ninja.
Pitchfork: What can you tell us about "T.O.R.N.A.D.O.", your new song?
Ian Parton: It's a bit more direct than the usual Go! Team song. It's like a seesaw of stabs, basically. It's call-and-response, sort of brassed out. It's like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, if you know the soundtrack to that. It's pretty tough, a bit more kind of straightforward than the usual Go! Team song. I'm not normally happy unless I have like 10 things going on, but this one was refreshingly stripped back and tough. I think the production's a bit weightier than previous Go! Team output.
Pitchfork: Is the whole album more direct like this song?
IP: No, not really. It's really eclectic. It spans much more fanfare-y stuff, which was actually done with live brass sections. I've been working with a community brass band of 20 players, and we've had to score everything out. It's got this real live parade feel to it. But then the album kind of shrinks right back down to little BBC Radiophonic Workshop theme-tuney, interlude-type songs. And then we have kind of psychedelic hip-hop. I guess I'll describe it as technicolor, slightly woozy hip-hop, and it features Dominique Young Unique.
We've got lots more singing on the record, and we have guest vocals. Satomi [Matsuzaki] from Deerhoof is on one song called "Secretary Song", which is really heavy on office sound effects-- typing and telephones and things like that. It's got this "Mad Men" feel to it-- a 60s office kind of feel. Satomi's singing about hating being a secretary. Bethany [Cosentino] from Best Coast is singing on a couple songs, as well. We actually did it ages ago. That was recorded in late '09, so nobody had heard of her when I asked her to do it. I'm pretty pleased that she's gone on to do well. I'm a real fan of Best Coast and that California feel. The song on which she sings has a jangly, girls-in-the-garage feel to it; it's super-melodic.
There's quite a few different kinds of songs on the album, and not self-consciously so. That's the way it happened-- just always getting bored and going in nine different directions at the same time. From day to day, my favorite music's always changing, so I guess that kind of comes out.
Pitchfork: You said you recorded it a year ago...
IP: Well, bits and pieces of it. I did the vocals then. It's been a while in the making, partly because we were touring forever, and partly because I had a kid. Also, it's time-consuming music, really. The kickoff for it was literally sitting down and fucking listening to thousands and thousands of records. I hoard them, and I tape the best bits, and I whittle it down and try things out. It's the silliest way of making music that you could ever do, really. Often, the song was written on acoustic, and then the sample was fitted to it, rather than me basing a song around someone else's idea. There's lots of live instruments on it. It's not so clearly cut-and-paste, this record.
Pitchfork: Is it difficult to clear all these samples?
IP: We haven't had much trouble so far. I just give a list to the label, and they get on with it, really. I don't really factor that in, and I'm quite happy to fudge things occasionally. If it's different enough and quite of out of context, I don't really mind gambling a little bit.
Pitchfork: The last album, Proof of Youth, came out in 2007. When you take that long in between albums, is there a lot of pressure to come back strong?
IP: I don't really buy into that, really. It could be if you let it. I always just get back to the melody. Every single thing just goes back to the melody for me-- just asking myself, "Do I like it? Do I look forward to hearing it? Is it a drag to work on it?" All that kind of stuff. Melody is God for me. That's the kickoff point, and then everything else follows.
Pitchfork: You mentioned recording with community brass bands on this one. When you start out making music by sampling, how much of a challenge is it to start incorporating live instruments, and then to move on to really big ensembles like that?
IP: I like to think I was never from the sort of Kanye West school of sampling. I always treat it as songwriting and always get a kick out of changing the sample, playing different chords over it so it becomes something different. I wouldn't lift from someone else. So I think it's just a continuation of what we've been doing, and I'm just starting to have the ability to get these things done now. I've never had the bollocks to ask a 20-piece band to play, but now I'm a bit braver and a bit more ambitious.
We kind of got an African gospel choir on this one as well. I turned up to a church in Stratton when they were doing their gospel practice and got a recording of their song. I'm striving to be a bit more ambitious, but without being wanky. There's no string sections or any of that kind of overblown stuff, which is often used to disguise the fact that you haven't written a good song.
I've always liked epicness, in a way. When I set out, Morricone was always one of my favorites, and I was always making spaghetti western music, in a way. But this record was mastered to a C90 at the end. So I'm kind of always getting pulled in two different directions: lo-fi and panoramic scope. The lo-fi thing is still really important to me. I'm never angling to get on the charts or anything like that. It's the last thing on my mind. It's almost like I want to put things on C90s as a psychological thing for me. It's a way of making myself feel better, just scorching the sound a bit. It just gels the song together a bit more. It's not really nostalgia. Often, people talk about us being nostalgic. I'm a bit suspicious of nostalgia. The lo-fi aspect just puts a wall around it that says, "Hey, we're not aiming to be on daytime radio."
Pitchfork: How does Ninja feel about Die Antwoord having a rapper named Ninja?
IP: I think there's loads of Ninjas in the world, to be honest. I've seen quite a few in my day. It's a pretty textbook MC name, really. But everyone calls her Ninja. It's not even a stage name. Her boyfriend calls her Ninja. So do the band and her brothers and all that. Everyone calls her that. It's really weird. That's her name now
Hear new track "T.O.R.N.A.D.O." and read our interview with mastermind Ian Parton
When Ian Parton started the Go! Team, it was a one-man sample-collage project. But Parton soon recruited a band and learned how to turn his tracks into a festival-crushing live act-- thanks in no small part to the furiously energetic female rapper Ninja. Now, Parton is getting ready to release the Go! Team's new album, Rolling Blackouts. It's due January 31 from Memphis Industries. Up above, you can hear "T.O.R.A.N.A.D.O.", an album track that makes heavy use of funky horn stabs and Ninja's double-dutch cadences.
Pitchfork recently caught up with Parton to talk about the new album, gospel choirs, and Die Antwoord-- who also have a rapper named Ninja.
Pitchfork: What can you tell us about "T.O.R.N.A.D.O.", your new song?
Ian Parton: It's a bit more direct than the usual Go! Team song. It's like a seesaw of stabs, basically. It's call-and-response, sort of brassed out. It's like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, if you know the soundtrack to that. It's pretty tough, a bit more kind of straightforward than the usual Go! Team song. I'm not normally happy unless I have like 10 things going on, but this one was refreshingly stripped back and tough. I think the production's a bit weightier than previous Go! Team output.
Pitchfork: Is the whole album more direct like this song?
IP: No, not really. It's really eclectic. It spans much more fanfare-y stuff, which was actually done with live brass sections. I've been working with a community brass band of 20 players, and we've had to score everything out. It's got this real live parade feel to it. But then the album kind of shrinks right back down to little BBC Radiophonic Workshop theme-tuney, interlude-type songs. And then we have kind of psychedelic hip-hop. I guess I'll describe it as technicolor, slightly woozy hip-hop, and it features Dominique Young Unique.
We've got lots more singing on the record, and we have guest vocals. Satomi [Matsuzaki] from Deerhoof is on one song called "Secretary Song", which is really heavy on office sound effects-- typing and telephones and things like that. It's got this "Mad Men" feel to it-- a 60s office kind of feel. Satomi's singing about hating being a secretary. Bethany [Cosentino] from Best Coast is singing on a couple songs, as well. We actually did it ages ago. That was recorded in late '09, so nobody had heard of her when I asked her to do it. I'm pretty pleased that she's gone on to do well. I'm a real fan of Best Coast and that California feel. The song on which she sings has a jangly, girls-in-the-garage feel to it; it's super-melodic.
There's quite a few different kinds of songs on the album, and not self-consciously so. That's the way it happened-- just always getting bored and going in nine different directions at the same time. From day to day, my favorite music's always changing, so I guess that kind of comes out.
Pitchfork: You said you recorded it a year ago...
IP: Well, bits and pieces of it. I did the vocals then. It's been a while in the making, partly because we were touring forever, and partly because I had a kid. Also, it's time-consuming music, really. The kickoff for it was literally sitting down and fucking listening to thousands and thousands of records. I hoard them, and I tape the best bits, and I whittle it down and try things out. It's the silliest way of making music that you could ever do, really. Often, the song was written on acoustic, and then the sample was fitted to it, rather than me basing a song around someone else's idea. There's lots of live instruments on it. It's not so clearly cut-and-paste, this record.
Pitchfork: Is it difficult to clear all these samples?
IP: We haven't had much trouble so far. I just give a list to the label, and they get on with it, really. I don't really factor that in, and I'm quite happy to fudge things occasionally. If it's different enough and quite of out of context, I don't really mind gambling a little bit.
Pitchfork: The last album, Proof of Youth, came out in 2007. When you take that long in between albums, is there a lot of pressure to come back strong?
IP: I don't really buy into that, really. It could be if you let it. I always just get back to the melody. Every single thing just goes back to the melody for me-- just asking myself, "Do I like it? Do I look forward to hearing it? Is it a drag to work on it?" All that kind of stuff. Melody is God for me. That's the kickoff point, and then everything else follows.
Pitchfork: You mentioned recording with community brass bands on this one. When you start out making music by sampling, how much of a challenge is it to start incorporating live instruments, and then to move on to really big ensembles like that?
IP: I like to think I was never from the sort of Kanye West school of sampling. I always treat it as songwriting and always get a kick out of changing the sample, playing different chords over it so it becomes something different. I wouldn't lift from someone else. So I think it's just a continuation of what we've been doing, and I'm just starting to have the ability to get these things done now. I've never had the bollocks to ask a 20-piece band to play, but now I'm a bit braver and a bit more ambitious.
We kind of got an African gospel choir on this one as well. I turned up to a church in Stratton when they were doing their gospel practice and got a recording of their song. I'm striving to be a bit more ambitious, but without being wanky. There's no string sections or any of that kind of overblown stuff, which is often used to disguise the fact that you haven't written a good song.
I've always liked epicness, in a way. When I set out, Morricone was always one of my favorites, and I was always making spaghetti western music, in a way. But this record was mastered to a C90 at the end. So I'm kind of always getting pulled in two different directions: lo-fi and panoramic scope. The lo-fi thing is still really important to me. I'm never angling to get on the charts or anything like that. It's the last thing on my mind. It's almost like I want to put things on C90s as a psychological thing for me. It's a way of making myself feel better, just scorching the sound a bit. It just gels the song together a bit more. It's not really nostalgia. Often, people talk about us being nostalgic. I'm a bit suspicious of nostalgia. The lo-fi aspect just puts a wall around it that says, "Hey, we're not aiming to be on daytime radio."
Pitchfork: How does Ninja feel about Die Antwoord having a rapper named Ninja?
IP: I think there's loads of Ninjas in the world, to be honest. I've seen quite a few in my day. It's a pretty textbook MC name, really. But everyone calls her Ninja. It's not even a stage name. Her boyfriend calls her Ninja. So do the band and her brothers and all that. Everyone calls her that. It's really weird. That's her name now
downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/The%20Go!%20Team%20-%20T.O.R.N.A.D.O..mp3
Quite enjoy that new song, nothing massively different, but a bit beefier and a decent tune
