Party people in the place, get ready for this.

British uber-band The Go! Team (two drummers!) sure love their samples. So much so, in fact, that when their first album (2004's Thunder, Lightning, Strike!) was unleashed, they had to do a do-over and release a "legal" version of the record the following year after most of their samples had cleared. Double-dutch rhymes, Black Panther Party chants, Supremes and Lee Hazelwood tracks--they got it all. That sample-happy sound earned them a Mercury Music Prize nomination that year, and after touring the album and getting breaths good and bated for a sophomore release, they've assuaged fans' white knuckles by signing with famed Seattle record label Sub Pop and dropping a single that's about as hot a mess as we've ever encountered.


MP3: The Go! Team - "Grip Like a Vice"

Proof of Youth, The Go! Team's second album-to-be, is out on the 11th of September. Guest vocalists include Solex and Marina from Bonde Do Role. You can pick up the "Grip Like a Vice" single on the 2nd of July. B-sides include a cover of Sonic Youth's "Bull in the Heather" and an acapella track of the single's old school rap vocals.

MP3: The Go! Team - "Grip Like a Vice" (Acapella)

That's legendary female MCs Sha-Rock (of Funky Four + 1 fame) and Lisa Lee--who, along with Debbie Dee, formed the group Us Girls--and that rap is a Cold Crush callback (read: diss) from a 1984 BBC documentary on the history of hip hop (here's a clip). It's all but long-forgotten and that, right there, is the beauty of The Go! Team's archeological style. The final product of their curating hasn't, obviously, just been pulled out of thin air throbbing and alive. The single isn't simply an ape on someone else's genius; it had to have been painstakingly and lovingly pieced together by all six members of the band, and their own backing instrumentation seems not to devour the sample, but to propel it and give it weight. It's not biting; it's resurrection. It's not poaching; it's canonization. That proud proclamation of their loves and influences affords one an appreciation, if one didn't already have it, for The Go! Team's hot hot mess.