M.I.A.

M.I.A. – Kala

Consider Maya Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., as a human radio antenna: intercepting and re-broadcasting over the still populous airwaves, a sound saturated with dense rhythms, scattered noise and the street tough images of a non-Western landscape. Her latest album, Kala (named after her mother), projects much of the world by way of its multitude of aural color: the percussive heavy beats and patois vocals of Jamaican dancehall, the theatrical disco pop of Bollywood film music, the cut and paste dynamics of Brazilian baile funk, all mashed together to form a concoction with the bite and pleasure of a strong poured Mojito. But buried within these dance floor driven tracks, lurks the visuals of a third world status people. Opening track “Bamboo Banger” interpolates the Modern Lover’s “Road Runner” with new visuals of hungry arms “knocking on the doors of your Hummer Hummer” as “Bird Flu” references the new scrutiny applied to foreign passports. And with the Clash sampled-driven “Paper Planes”, a respect is paid to the egalitarian rockers who used the weapon of music to thumb their noise at rigid authority. Long live M.I.A.