GO-GO SAPIEN ALBUM REVIEW (Beat Magazine) by Patrick emery
Ever since Charles Darwin returned from his global travels, moored the Beagle at the dock and committed his thoughts on the nature of the species to paper, the world has been grappling with the concept of human evolution. Save for occasional moments of pseudo-scientific madness – Sarah Palin’s bizarre utterances on the topic being a recent example – it’s been widely accepted that the human species has evolved from the humble primate.Go-Go Sapien seem to have taken a leaf from the evolutionary book. Up until relatively recently – the name change completely passed me by – Go-Go Sapien were known as The Great Apes. Possibly on account of the band’s belief that it’s made the quantum evolutionary leap from primitive rock beasts to lithe, wise and psychedelic creatures, The Great apes have now become Go-Go sapien.
To the extent that there’s wisdom ion Go-Go Sapien’s debut album Merman, it’s in the band’s slick marriage of schlock-tinged psychedelic-pop and college humour. The opening track, History’s Monsters, opens in crooning mode, like a buffed 50’s frat boy wooing an equally shiny date at the school prom; within moments, the mask is ripped off , and the freakish acid stained reality of Go-Go Sapien is revealed, thereby setting the scene for what’s to come.
Destroy the Humanoid devolves into a primitive world inhabited by a psychotic blend of the Beach boys and the Loved Ones, Firecracker is a rip roaring, colour splattered journey into the seedy underside of the human psyche where life is as enjoyable as it is inherently evil and Cancer – with its necessarily confronting lyrics – is a vision of nocturnal visionary confusion with a pop sensibility The Byrds would understand. Pigspit is the soundtrack for a romantic boat ride down a country river, disturbed only by the fact that it’s skippered by Roky Erikson’s evil twin, Tough Love is the voice of Brian Wilson’s inner-demons wrestling with the desire to be good, while the final track, Julie, takes on a more subtle edge, invoking an aesthetic akin to Roxy music playing a high school dance in a B-grade horror film.
Like The Pineapples From The Dawn Of Time, Go-Go Sapien has discovered a recipe for exploiting the humour within the psychedelic experience. And they do it walking upright. You can’t create this shit – it must be the product of evolution.
PATRICK EMERY
(July 8th edition of Beat magazine 2009.)