soulRocks » electro

Santigold

soulrocks — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:40:07 +0000

As a solo project with a revolving door of members, the heart and face of Santigold is vivacious frontwoman Santi White. White and John Hill, her former counterpart from ska-punk band Stiffed, use their common backgrounds as production-savvy musicians to make bombastic, bass-oriented songs that fuse punk, reggae, grime, and indie rock with electro. Tribal island rhythms merge with flavorful digital chirps and blips, culminating in an original sound that is comparable to M.I.A. but draws from too many other influences to be considered just another M.I.A. knockoff.

While showcasing her array of vocal styles at a Stiffed show, Whitewas spotted by Martin Heath, who made her an offer to record a solo record on Lizard King, the label responsible for the successful promotion of the Killers. After failed attempts with a few mainstream pop producers, White and Hill (now calling the projectSantogold) decided to pair up with a crew of likeminded musicians — including Freq Nasty, Disco D, Switch, Spank Rock‘s Naeem,Xxxchange, Steel Pulse guitarist Clifford Moonie Pusey, and none other than M.I.A. herself.

In only three weeks, the full-length Creator was completed and scheduled for release in January of 2008, though it took until April for the album (retitled to simply Santogold) to actually hit shelves. Speaking of re-titling, White decided to change the name of the project to Santigold in early 2009 for reasons possibly related to an impending lawsuit from wrestler and “personality” Santo Gold.

www.myspace.com/santigold

Crystal Castles

soulrocks — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 18:05:15 +0000

Fusing low-res electronic noise and pop hooks so effortlessly that it can seem accidental, Crystal Castles began as producer/multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath‘s solo project in late 2003. Kath got the moniker from the name of She-Ra’s dwelling in the He-Man and Masters of the Universe cartoon series; it’s also the name of a 1983 Atari video game, which is oddly appropriate, considering that one component of the band’s distinctive sound comes from a keyboard modified with an Atari 5200 sound chip. When Kath collaborated with singer Alice Glass on some songs in spring 2005, Crystal Castles’ lineup was complete. One of the songs the pair recorded, “Alice Practice,” was something of an accident: it was intended to be a demo of Glass testing out a microphone, but its presence on MySpace piqued record labels’ interest. “Alice Practice” was released as a limited-edition 7″ in summer 2006 on Merok Records, also home to Klaxons; its 500-copy run sold out in three days. Kath and Glassworked on their own songs and also honed their remixing skills, tweaking songs for Klaxons as well as GoodBooks, Uffie, Health, andBloc Party. Tours with the Presets and Metric in 2007 set the stage for the release of Crystal Castles’ self-titled debut album, which Last Gang released early in 2008. The duo returned in 2010 with another self-titled album; when it leaked onto the Internet in late April of that year, the band released it digitally soon after, with a physical release following that May.

http://crystalcastles.com/