The Go’s Long-Buried ‘Free Electricity’ Set For Release

Before Jack White launched the White Stripes, he spent time as lead guitarist in Detroit garage rock outfit the Go, only to exit just after contributing to its 1999 debut, Whatcha Doin’. Now, one of the band’s most elusive recordings is finally getting an official release.

Sub Pop has announced that Free Electricity, the Go’s long-rumored “lost” second album, will arrive Sept. 4, more than two decades after it was recorded. Written primarily by frontman Bobby Harlow, the 10-song collection was produced and mixed by Matthew Smith, engineered by Jim Diamond at Detroit’s Ghetto Recorders and mastered by Jim Kissling.

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The album captures the Go at a particularly adventurous moment, with songs including the title track, “All Dimensions Are Loose” and “Secular Century Man” pushing the band’s high-octane sound into stranger territory. According to Smith, that was entirely by design.

“The title track might have ended up sounding like a more traditional rock’n’roll song, but I suggested they do a take with the lead guitar blasting non-stop, something which made the dynamics more like that of a free jazz ensemble,” he recalls. “When I sat down to mix the track, the reverb tank seemed to open up like a giant hole in the earth’s crust and suddenly what came out of the speakers was a big, cavernous sound, like some haunted frequency beamed across the time barrier from the Grande Ballroom circa 1968.”

Smith says the sessions reflected the group’s growing fascination with ’60s free jazz, citing influences including Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra alongside the band’s literary and musical heroes such as the Fugs, Allen Ginsberg, the Bonzo Dog Band and Nilsson. “We were going where the music was leading us, and the strange sounds just kept on coming,” he says. “There was a feeling of excitement and adventure happening at these sessions, and I think we captured that feeling on tape.”

Recorded after lineup changes and extensive touring behind Whatcha Doin’, Free Electricity also features guest appearances from Destroy All Monsters co-founder Cary Loren and Wolf Eyes’ John Olson. It is available to preorder now on CD, LP and digital formats through Sub Pop, with limited-edition metallic gold “loser” vinyl available while supplies last.

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