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.