Santogold over it

If Santogold was any more ‘of the moment’, she’d be sat in your lap, reading this out loud to you.

Through a mix of furious networking and artistic fearlessness, the former Santi White has become a totemic figure for the current crop of genre-bending acts currently blowing raspberries at the parameters of pop. During her short career as Santogold, she’s collaborated with some of the producers at the frontline of 21st century music, from Timbaland via futurestep visionary FreQ Nasty to Mark Ronson. By sheer dint of these associations, she’d been mentioned in the same breath as MIA, James Murphy and Crystal Castles even before unleashing her first single.

Yes, stylistically she veers wildly from track to track, but no, she doesn’t forget her duty to cohere for the listener.

The four tracks to be found on her MySpace page last year showed an artist in transition, embracing everything from planet-bashing baille funk to ‘Parallel Lines’-tipping new wave. The eclecticism that has served her so well on paper however left some doubting her ability to make a cohesive album. She reacted in a recent interview, warning against the dated thinking that dictates all songs on an album should sound the same. “Everyone’s over it,” she surmised.

Before she was Santogold, the 32-year-old was a music biz veteran. For a time she was an A&R for the ‘urban’ department of Epic Records, a pop songwriter for hire (Lily Allen, Ashlee Simpson), the leader of ska revival band Stiffed, and an MC for Spank Rock. All these musical personae come into play one way or another on ‘Santogold’, which, yes, stylistically veers wildly from track to track, but no, doesn’t forget its duty to cohere for the listener.