Empowered Female Musicians- part 2- Santogold

Last time I reviewed MIA’s live concert. This time I review Santogold from Brooklyn, as a preview to a free concert that Santogold will be giving on Sunday July 20 in N.Y.C. as part of Central Park Summerstage (see www.summerstage.org). There are similarities in that both make powerful but not (usually) pretty electronica. Santogold has a strong song called Starstruck, M.I.A. has a strong song called Sunshowers. If anything Santogold’s music is more melodic and diverse.

Santogold is a collaboration between Santi White and former Stiffed bandmate John Hill. The CD cover has an image of Santi White with gold glitter coming out of her mouth. Santogold features production from sometime MIA collaborators Diplo and Switch. And like MIA, her music reportedly has elements of baile funk (dance music from Rio de Janeiro); perhaps it’s time to find out more directly about this stuff.

My favorite song of the CD is Creator (produced by Switch), probably the most original and the one that stays the freshest on repeated listening. She creates deep-resonating sounds not with instruments or electronics but with her voice. The lyrics twang too (you’ll need a crowbar to pry this song out from your inner resonating-chamber):

Me, I’m a creator, thrill is to make it up/The rules I break got me a place up on the radar

Me, I’m a Taker Know what the stakes are

I was chosen And I will deliver the explosion

Another strong song is “My Superman” about a liar “but I can’t count all the ways you woo me“.

L.E.S. Artistes showcases her voice. There must be a story behind this spelling of this title?

Say Aha has some unusual lyrics: Louder than they allow, Say Aha, Aha!

Unstoppable (produced by Diplo) has a jerky rhythm and an empowered attitude.

I prefer the remix by Switch and Sinden of You’ll find a way to the plain version.

Starstruck has the grunting male chorus that somehow really helps make this song for me.

The concert also features DJ Diplo, A-Trak and Kid Cudi.

Empowered Female Musicians- part 1- M.I.A.

Recently I attended a concert by the electronica musician M.I.A. and I plan to attend a concert in N.Y.C. on July 20 by Brooklyn artist Santogold. Both of these artists make powerful, complex, and original but not pretty music that is a must-hear. Part 2 of this article will be a review of Santogold's self-titled CD as a preview to her concert.

First, here is a review of the M.I.A. concert.

M.I.A. played the last concert of her current tour to promote the CD Kala Friday night Jun 6. Pity, because it was a wonderful live show in a very cool venue that itself resides in a fun neighborhood. The audience stands right within the former pool with traces of blue paint remaining on the bottom; the surrounding buildings have dramatic towering red-brick arches unlike any swimming pool or concert venue I’ve ever seen.

M.I.A. is an multi-talented artist that works well on many levels and at the same time has an unpretentious air about her; this is the first time I’ve seen her live and while the music lacked some of the complexity and purity of the sound on her CDs in this setting, she and her ample retinue more than compensated with her stage presence, fashion sense, movements, rhythms and visuals.

When we arrived in broad daylight the set comprised of plastic palm trees seemed tacky but in the dark was transformed into a colorful striking set. The concert started by playing a bitingly sarcastic and very funny speech in Japanese about a minority political candidate giving a speech saying elections don’t change anything; the only alternative is to destroy the country (perhaps a comment on the cloying patriotic and religious sentiments we hear so much in politics). The visuals continued as probably the strongest visuals to accompany music that I have seen. The strong graphic patterns and colors had a direct simplicity that fit in with everything else. So often I find the visuals detracting.

In retrospect it was probably a good thing when M.I.A. was denied entry into the States as she was working on Kala. So this album was recorded outside the Music Marketing Machine and has a very original and provocative feel. Some of the music is reportedly influenced by baile funk (dance music from Rio de Janeiro).

In my opinion the songs in Kala have progressed a great deal in terms of diversity and complexity of sound, and rhythmical pizazz from her first CD Arular but songs from both CDs were well represented. Banana Skit is a short but surreal and funny song. Jimmy has a strong Bollywood (i.e. the music of Indian films) feel to it. Come Around, Bucky Done Gun, Mango Pickle Down River, Hussel, Pull up the People, World Town were other highlights. What amazed me was when she invited at least 100 audience members on stage and sang in the middle of chaos while hugging and being hugged by her fans. For other songs she brought out unpolished but exuberant and diverse performers from all over the world (I thought she introduced some of the kids as from NY but my companion thought she said they were from Nigeria); at any rate I thought they added a great deal to the communal feel of the evening.

Sunshowers from Arular remains one of my favorites with the fun lyrics:

I bongo with my lingo
and beat it like a wing yo
to the Congo, to Columbo
Can’t stereotype my thingo

The evening ended with Paper Planes, another absolute favorite from Kala while people on stage threw paper airplanes with invitations for the after party into the audience. M.I.A. has no lack of style!

Review of a novel: The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

This is already a well reviewed book but the overall slant of the reviews I've seen does not match my own so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents.

Firstly this is so far the only book that I have read by Jodi Picoult though it won't be the last. I was attracted by the idea of including comic-book excerpts in a novel. This did not disappoint; the images are powerful and add new material instead of rehashing the text. The graphic panels have an exaggerated style which fits in with what one expects of comics.

The novel is from the viewpoint of the father, David Stone, a graphical artist. It tells the story of the rape of his teenage daughter. This was a convincing portrayal to me, also a father.

David also talks a great deal of the "beast within"; his comic hero Wildclaw transforms into a uncontrollable beast under stress. The beast is something with positive as well as negative aspects. The unthinking, raging side of the beast surfaces at times in many of the characters who are pushed into desperate difficult situations.

Dante's Inferno plays a significant role in this novel as Laura, the mother in the central family is a scholar of this work and it is also featured in the graphical sequence. Interestingly Ficoult adds a new level of hell to the 9 levels described by Dante. I'll let readers discover for themselves the "sin" which Picoult felt had been under-represented in Dante's version of hell.

The novel returns David Stone to the place of his birth and his mother's death, Alaska. He had run away from there as a youth; now his daughter runs away to Alaska. The description of Alaska and the Eskimo culture was intriguing. David Stone portrays hell in his graphical work as like Alaska.

The rape is portrayed in it's complexity and multi-dimensionality. It is not easy to assign blame.

Another criticism I have seen in other reviews which I did not agree with are that the characters were not believable. I will say that the characters acted at times in surprising ways. The act of rape must be a very jarring event and should cause serious repercussions. The character of the investigating detective Bartholemew, also a parent added another perspective to the story. The ending really took me by surprise but in retrospect is believable.

I will say I am still a little confused by the front cover image of this book.

All in all this is a very creative work and deserves to be rewarded for that.

music from a bygone era

This is a series of Gypsy music from Romania, the land of the great band Taraf de Haidouks. I listened to Vol 2 Romica Puceanu & the Gore Brothers and Vol 3 Dona Dumitru Siminica. Both of these are Lautari singers; this is a quiet suburban 'blues' style influenced by the Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Jewish, Aromanian, and Gypsy sub-cultures of Budapest.

Both feature very good instrumentalists as well. This music was tolerated for a brief period by the Communist Government even to the point of Doan Dumitru recording a few songs in the Gypsy language.
Dona Dumitru was known for his falsetto voice, which is probably higher than Romica Puceanu's voice. His voice is ear-catching.

Victor Gore who sings on Vol 2 in addition to Romica also uses the falsetto in one of my favorite pieces Adu calu' sa ma duc. Needless to say I'm a fan of the falsetto voice.

Neither of these discs can come up to the standard of Taraf de Haidouks (which play a much more frenzied and rough style) but are none the less worth listening.

hideaway- The Weepies

This CD is a solid work of mellow melancholy. There is not much startling or unique here but it contains well crafted songs that hold one's interest.

Orbiting uses a nice metaphor for relationships:

you were a kind of moon outside my room
I feel you nearby, now I feel you gone

Hideaway is about knowing when to "honestly leave":

even the stars sometimes fade to gray

Little Bird is about those times where things aren't going well:

Sometimes it's hard to say even one thing true
when all eyes have turned aside
they used to talk to you

Likewise Antarctica:

I'll just remember the wind and the snow..
that it alone drowns out the inside of me

And Not Dead Yet:

There's another way I'd rather be
with all the ways I tried to keep in touch
that you will never know

And Lighting Candles:

Trying not to hope too hard ...
I'm still in the dark lighting candles

Other strong songs are Just Blue, Takes so long, How you survived the War
Somehow these songs sound to me like 2 separate songwriters, who don't quite integrate often enough. Both singers have beautiful voices but I'd like just a little more harmony. There is a little too much melancholy in this album even though they do it so well. And so it is finally, with a sense of relief, that the album ends on an upbeat song All This Beauty.

Share this place- Mirah and Spectratone International

This is an ambitious adventurous concept album by Mirah and Spectratone International (the original work was commissioned for an art gallery and included animation). These are songs written from the point of view of insects with accompaniment by a "chamber" group (of accordion, string instruments and percussion).
Mirah's voice can be stunning and passionate; the music is complex and unpredictable with sudden major shifts.
But I struggled with this album; it took a while to grow on me. Some of the songs grate on my nerves whereas others, where it feels like everything meshes, are exceptionally lovely. Many songs are based on dance forms and are surprisingly successfully danceable!
I would like to see a little more explanation of these songs; I feel like I may be missing something although I do like some mystery; the lyrics quoted below are by ear and may not be entirely correct and some songs I was not able to make out in their entirety.

My favorite songs are Luminescence (a love song with a relaxed Samba style where the voice and Accordion and humor of the lyrics shine) which starts:

Luminescence is ours; don't need a reason ...
shine like a beacon; I've got the brilliance to let him know
I am so ready to glow
This light is soft in the night like a sigh

brilliantly I oxidize
a belly fully of bright

Then there is Love Song of the Fly (another stimulatingly unusual love song between a fly and a human that has a beautiful romantic guitar intro):

I permit myself the nearness of you
Even just the scent of what you left behind
sends me in circles of lust
Please render me adoringly

Oh, why do you despise me, only criticize me
A Love that resides in kaleidescope eyes
you only think me base and dirty
you multiplying in my eyes

Ecclycis is tango-like (how can you not like a song with a name like this?)

Upside down, split from the ground
insides out and gyrate?
I begin to pupate
cause all my tissues to rearrange
green and gold is getting old
prepare to know my indigo
I'm getting out, I'm getting out

My Lord Who Hums (great atmospheric accompaniment) goes:

If I am killed and not understood
You will never learn what you could
I am the Lord of the flies
I have been swallowed and rebirthed
I am your kin

Supper (another song in dance form) goes as follows:

My villainy is rare
just like any other gadabout
I vanquish you with kisses, a dubious caress
in truth it is a poison
Liquefaction is a skill which I possess

Another is Song of Psyche (again Accordion and percussion and the concept shine).
Emergence of the Primary Larva (this accompaniment takes time to grow on one as it is so fresh-sounding)

In short I give this album the highest rating, for it's ambition and freshness. It may not all be immediately accessible but is well worth spending time with. Give it a chance to grow on you too!

The amazing writing of the Amazing Adventures

I recently finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon which substantiates Chabon's gift with words and extravagant plots if you had any doubts (another book by Chabon was previously reviewed in this blog).

What could be a more apt metaphor for the experience of Jewish survival in World War II then the escape artist? This novel is about 2 early comic book artists at the onset of the war who create the hero the Escapist among other great allegorical comic-book figures such as the Luna Moth. One of the pair, Josef Kavalier had escaped from Czechoslovakia having overcome comic-book-level complications and is forever scarred by the loss of the rest of his family and friends, in particular his brother Thomas. Thomas' escape from the Nazi's on the other hand was cut short at the last moment when his ship is sunk by a U-boat at the shores of America. This causes Josef to join the army but his experience of war turns out to be strangely life affirming though nonetheless difficult. Josef becomes psychologically stuck and unable to return to his normal life after the war; to his friends and lover he just disappears with no trace.

But this book is not a downer; it cannot be as it is infused with such a creative and playful spirit. Josef's son Tommy, born while Josef was off at war, without knowing about his real father, is also fascinated by comic-books and magic. How Tommy helps his father finally return from the war, in a hyper-plot worthy of a extraordinary comic book, is the crux of the story. Though this novel has elements of the comic book it also has depth, rhythmic writing, imagery, smoldering sexuality and sophisticated, complicated feeling. The other main characters i.e. the other comic-book artist Sam Clay (the man who is strong and loyal enough to not escape) and Josef's love Rosa are marvelously realized.

Here are just a couple of excerpts:

(Tommy in the city) He heard men swearing and singing opera. On a sunny day, his peripheral vision would be spangled with the light winking off the chrome headlights ..., the buckles on ladies shoes, ... the bulldog ornaments on the hoods of irate moving vans. This was Gotham City, Empire City, Metropolis. Its skies and rooftops were alive with men in capes and costumes on the lookout for wrongdoers ...

Tommy had his shoes off, his eye patch on, and half a pack of Black Jack in his mouth.

(children watching a superhero about to jump) The slow, dull, dark submarine of their lives in which they were the human cargo had abruptly surfaced. Their blood was filled with a kind of crippling nitrogen of wonder

This book has the same effect on my blood.