Santigold, Electric Brixton, review: 'A bold, trashy and seductive performance'

Santigold

Since her last full-length album, 2012’s Master of My Make-Believe, Santigold (Santi White) has spent her time contributing to the soundtracks for Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Paper Towns as well as having a baby, trying out acting and launching her own makeup collection.

The cover of Santigold’s third album, 99¢ shows the Philadelphia singer shrinkwrapped with consumer desirables and reduced to a product. The commodification of art is a continuing theme throughout the new album and on her We Buy Gold tour. It is full of socio-political statements sugarcoated by big pop choruses and bright, flashing graphics and fashion statements.

Opening with 2008 hits, "You'll Find A Way" and "L.E.S. Artists", she arrives messy haired and wearing a yellow dress bearing the words “We Buy Gold”. We swiftly move onto the new songs like “Big Boss Big Time Business” that sees her don a David Byrne Big Suit jacket.

“Banshee” is an upbeat, punchy dance tune with a sugary refrain that prompts the lyrics: “Let me keep on preaching to my choir. Will you take me down or push me higher.”

The brightest parts of the chaotic show are the visuals. Ego-centric branding is everywhere from projections of her head on Pez dispensers and mugs to flashing images of supermarket shelves, 99¢ signs, sun beds, microwaves and hair products that emulate the hypnotic hyper-pop of Japanese commercials.

Backed by dancers that groove stone-faced, they play out a performance of vapid consumerism: lounging in inflatable chairs eating Cheetos, snapping photos with selfie sticks and wearing “Santigold” stamped outfits.

Throughout, the new songs display a lighter touch than Master of My Make-Believe. New-wave inspired “Rendezvous Girl”, is a throwback to the career women of the ’80s while 99¢’s slower number “All I Got” is teasingly downbeat and “Chasing Shadows” shines with twinkling keys and a tropical reggae groove.

Ending the set with the saccharine pop melody of “Can’t Get Enough of Myself”, Santigold and her dancers wear sweatshirts and jogging bottoms with her face printed on and she unleashes a slew of satirical lyrics about the narcissism of modern culture.

In a last bid for pandemonium, bubbles are unleashed in a chaotic light show and as she sings “Hold The Line” and “Big Mouth” the crowd invade the stage.

This mix of spirited electro-pop melodies and biting lyrics works best live, fleshing out the concept in jarring lyrical and visual statements in a bold, trashy and seductive performance.