Santogold - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk
Don't call Santi White an R&B artist: on her debut album Santogold, this former music biz A&R and pop songwriter for hire is challenging race stereotypes and playing fast and loose with genre, mashing up dub, punk, and electronics to make an energetic, anger-fuelled music that blurs the lines between the dancefloor and the moshpit. Comparisons to MIA hold some water, especially on the bullish "Creator" (it's worth noting that Santogold features production turns from sometime MIA collaborators Diplo and Switch). For the most part, though, Santogold's debut follows a quite different path. "L.E.S Artists" is stirring new-wave pop that builds to grand, tearful choruses reminiscent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, while "You'll Find a Way" and "Say Aha" are propulsive ska-pop numbers that hark back to its creator's previous band, Bad Brains-influenced punks Stiffed. But it's not just skilful genre-skipping to recommend this record, though: White is the rare vocalist that can sound empowered and vulnerable within the space of the same song, and it's her force of character that places Santogold ahead of the pack. --Louis Pattison

Product Description
"The future of music, today" - Rolling Stone 10 Artists To Watch. "Singing in a haunting, sensual wail...she adds a layer of softness to an unusual mix of synthesizers, dance hall rhythms, and percolating new wave" - NY Times. "Future-pop princess...next big thing" - Spin. "Santi White is Santogold...the collaborators and players may change, the sounds may shift, but at the center is one woman's indelible vision" - The Fader. SXSW / Coachella shows, 2007 tours with Bjork, M.I.A., songs featured in Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, Grand Theft Auto.

Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Pure Gold!! May 17, 2008
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

I first heard of Santogold late last year when a few sites, Rolling Stone and The BBC included, raved about her being one of the faces to watch out for in 2008. I later found out she contributed her vocals to "Pretty green" on Mark Ronson's "Version" album.

First of all, I was amazed to find out she's American, I think she sounds very British, not unlike M.I.A. whom almost everyone keeps comparing her to, but with more pop appeal. Her voice is something of a raspy yell, not unlike Gwen Stefani's, and her sound is a hodge podge of eighties music styles.

Determined not to get pigeonholed as an R&B singer on account of her race, she tackles electro dub; the moody "Shove it", "Creator" (laden with electronic buzzes and effects), the fantastic "Unstoppable" (with jittery sounding synths, a favourite of mine), and the remix of "You'll find a way". The last pair are the most M.I.A sounding on the album.

The rest is electro rock/pop. Opening cut "L.E.S artistes" has chugging synths and wouldn't sound out of place on a No Doubt album. Bouncier are "You'll find a way", and "Say aha". "My superman" (with a laid back vocal delivery) is a creepy sounding song with an echoing riff, it sounds like the soundtrack to some spy thriller and is a favourite of mine.

"Lights out" has her singing in a smooth cooing voice not unlike Debbie Harry in Blondie, set to a chugging riff (and jangly guitars). "Starstruck" is a slow grinding number with moody sounding synths and electro flourishes, and also downtempo is "I'm a lady" (think Gwen Stefani's "Cool"), and the mellow "Anne" with ghostly wailing and a gently pulsing synth riff is awesome.

Listening through the entire album, I found there wasn't any single track I wanted to skip. Diverse sounds and intelligent lyrics which all stand well together. Pure Gold in my opinion, and yes, she's definitely one to watch out for!

5 out of 5 stars

Just awesome April 29, 2008
17 out of 22 found this review helpful

This album is going to be huge. Santogold's debut is one of the most exciting releases by a new artist in recent memory. Its filled with hooks, beats, attitude, intelligence and a voice that makes you sit up and say, "Hey, who is that?".

The first artist you might compare her to is M.I.A., but I'll go out on a limb and say that Santogold has more talent and a wider artistic range. The tracks on a M.I.A. album can start to sound the same after a while, but that's not the case here. Each track on Santogold's debut has a distinct musical identity.

The other artist she brings to mind is Gwen Stefani, at least in terms of vocal timbre, power and acrobatic ability.

Comparisons aside, Santogold is a striking new artist on the world scene and we are lucky witnesses.

5 out of 5 stars

Great new Artiste May 1, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I too saw Santogold open for Bjork last year and have been eagerly awaiting her debut CD. I bought the singles when they became available a while ago & now the entire CD. I am not disappointed in the least! Great music, infectious beats, a truly distinctive voice - the CD is 5 Star all the way. I cannot wait to see her in person again. Hopefully she will come back to her native Philly!

Standouts are L.E.S. Artistes, Creator, and Shove It!

5 out of 5 stars

a new creator with fierce realness yes! May 3, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

If you haven't heard of Santogold yet it's about time that you did. She's written with Lily Allen and Mark Ronson, and has been compared to MIA and Karen O. She is a college-educated singer-songwriter and producer, whose singles Creator/LES Artistes and LES artistes are released together.

Her Myspace site describes her as a basement rock and Bananarama-soundclash artist, which is a wild combination but pretty accurate.

She's an American lady doing an almost tribal-dancehall-electro-grime-punk-ragga fling. Creator/LES Artistes uses haunting, shrieking voice and electric whines with wonderful shifts of tone throughout aided by Freq Nasty's sublime rhythm section. Simultaneously she has a slight old school humour to her, it's reminiscent of the routes and roots of the most innovative Missy Elliott material. It's very exciting to be so close to something so rare and so new.

She has this fantastic ability to blend into two tracks which sound so different and yet so the same. Her voice shows off its versatility in tone and delivery. In LES Artistes it is quirky and fine somewhere between Rihanna and Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife, while in Creator/LES Artistes she aggresively, rapidly, fluently raps as well as anyone.

LES Artistes addresses the issues of pretentious followers and standing up for what she believes. It's a nice reminder that she had unmitigated creative control over the forthcoming album. Creator/LES Artistes sharply brings out this theme again "Me, I'm a Creator/LES Artistes, thrill is to make it up, the rules I break got me a place, up on the radar". I'm very glad she has.

The suspenseful escalating drama of the single is her lyrical and sonic manifesto, and hopefully the world will listen up.

5 out of 5 stars

Best New Artist? April 30, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

My friend and I were fortunate to see her live at Madison Square Garden and in the front center row at that, purely awesome. She opened for Bjork. Anyway The album is really great. This album will be big hit a few months from now, once people get to know her. Santogold does many different musical genres and it works well, from Reagga to punk rock, to electronia. all works well. Many of these songs could work as singles as well, almost like Alanis Morissette's "jagged little pills" senrio. Give it a listen, it's not like anything you heard before.

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