GO-GO SAPIEN synthesize their distinctive pop tunes from a wide range of influences including post punk, psych-rock, surf music and sci-fi film scores. Their live performances are visually dynamic, energetic and theatrical - characteristically featuring outlandish, matching uniforms and live film projections.
The band formed in Melbourne in 2006 as "The Great Apes" and changed their name in 2009, just prior to independently releasing their self funded, debut album "Merman". The album received a NARNIE award for Best Australian Album of 2009 from 3RRR's Banana Lounge Broadcasting radio show. Beat Magazine's Patrick Emery described the album as "A slick marriage of schlock tinged psychedelic pop and college humour – it must be the product of evolution".
The launch of this album was advertised by a two week revolving art exhibition at Brunswick's Eisenberg gallery, which featured 11 visual artists' interpretations of songs from the album. A video clip to the first single off "Merman" ("Destroy the Humanoid") was aired several times on RAGE throughout 2009. A live half hour set from the band was broadcast on PBS-FM in and Sydney's FBI-FM in 2009.
Building on the critical and creative success of their first album, the band played several interstate shows throughout 2010, expanding their national fan base. The band have played over 100 live shows since their formation and have shared stages with international and local rock 'n' roll luminaries such as The Soundtrack of Our Lives (Sweden), Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Even and Dave Graney and The Lurid Yellow Mist. "I predict that Go Go Sapien will be some kind of huge act.They are GENIUS!." (Dave Graney on Twitter, Feb 2010)
GO-GO SAPIEN are set to release their follow up, studio recorded album, "This Body Is Wrong For Us", which includes an accompanying (album length) film, featuring numerous Melbournian musicians in the character roles. A national tour consisting of live performances and complimentary film screenings is planned, following the album's release.
ALBUM REVIEWS:
Go-Go Sapien – Merman (Album Review)
Author Matt Mahar RTRFM (Perth)
Published Wednesday 9th December
Possibly inspired by a strange black monolith, Go-Go Sapien have created an album which picks out some of the finest trashy musical styles of the last couple of decades and turns it into some very catchy psychedelic garage pop.
The band are a 6 piece out of Melbourne. After performing for a few years as The Great Apes, they have climbed the evolutionary ladder to become the swinging Go-Go Sapien for their debut album, "Merman". It's a record with a sense of humour, revelling in the absurd as lead singer Will Hindmarsh's voice croons and wails like John Spencer over bold guitars, 60's retro synths and imaginative lyrics which cover everything from sci-fi paranoia to relationship and heartbreak, often at the same time.
The opening track History's Monsters opens with a calm that lasts for about a minute until it breaks down into rockabilly style vocals with weird lyrics and rocking guitars, setting the tone for the rest of the album. Destroy The Humanoid is a crooning, dick swinging dive into a strange world where people have to avoid having their energy drained while slaving away in shitty jobs, while Firecracker is an urgent track with a wailing high pitched organ and guitar riffs that wouldn't be out of place on the Repo Man soundtrack. The kinda punk Tough Love could be the lost theme song to a warped Saturday morning cartoon and Cancer's hypnotic repetition and harmonies almost disguise the lyrics explaining the lack of hope for the future. The final track Julie has an almost early nineties feel to it as the relatively earnest and subdued tone ends what is a very solid album.
All in all, "Merman" is a mighty fine album whose quality speaks of their years together as a band and is well worth a listen.
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.)
WATCH THIS SPOT FOR GO-GO SAPIEN GIGS NEAR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
