Santogold – Santogold

Santogold ‘ Santogold

By Aidan Roberts

This is certainly an eye-catcher from the outset, before even one note has been heard; a very funky, neo-70’s record sleeve featuring a mysterious African girl, waxen black hair and curious eyes, spewing a stream of gold glitter into space. This image is surprisingly pertinent for the music that’s involved here; what’s most intriguing about Santi White’s first full-length album is its schizophrenic genre-hopping ‘ funk, soul, break-beat, trash pop, space-out rock; it’s all here it seems. L.E.S Artistes plays like the new-wave French revolution sweeping American soul right off its feet, while You’ll Find a Way (co-produced by luminary hit-maker MIA) rocks, Indie LA-style. Santi swings her vocal style every this way and that, sometimes howling with rock confidence, then the next moment wrangling a nu-techno chant. Is this mish-mashing of focus and style distracting’ Slightly, but one gets the impression that the live experience of watching this girl and her merry men must be an ear-poppingly eclectic trip, and that’s got to be fun, especially when the recorded version is woven together by the skills of a musician and singer whose school-girl-on-sugar energy is so infectious. Bewildering, but hell, it’s good fun.

***1/2