, is a dizzying display of her talent and her passions. Featuring topics like poverty, oppression, and war M.I.A. is able to bleed the lines of strict classification and transcend normal stereotyping - until, I suppose, until
characteristic becomes a stereotype - it probably has. Either way, this shit is gooooood! It's fun, creative, and very diverse - a lot of tribal elements that made me think of voodoo and zombies. Killer beats and pseudo-cryptic lyrics make
The historical relationship between myself and both hip-hop and electronic music has never been a particularly warm one; in fact, it was maybe 8 years ago that I can remember believing that I would never find an artist of either genre that I could appreciate. Eight years later and I understand what an incomplete and narrow belief that was! One of the more recent artists I have been listening to is Mathangi Arulpragasam, a.k.a. MIA, Maya, etc, etc... MIA's second album
Kala follows her spectacular debut album,
Arular (2005). Maya is originally a visual artist, which eventually opened the way for her musical career. Doing the artwork for Elastica in 2000 and subsequently video-documenting their ensuing tour, Maya connected with the electro-shock musician,
Peaches,, who introduced her to synthesizers and sequencers. From there, and aided by the enormously influential opinion of the online music and blog community, MIA broke large.
Maya, of Sri Lankan origin, spent much of her youth fleeing the violence in her native land, going from country to country, safe haven to safe haven and going back to Sri Lanka when possible, until she and her family eventually ended up in London. Her family did not include her father, but a big part of her life has clearly been the idea of her father, whom has always been a mysterious yet Romantic figure, auguring heavily into her beliefs - artistic, musical, or political. Her father has also had an influence in her life by way of his revolutionary/guerrilla activities coming into conflict with MIA's career aspirations. He was a founder of a Tamil revolutionary group called EROS that eventually assimilated into another group to become the Tamil Tigers. "Arular" is actually her father's name, and yep, you guessed it, Kala is named after her mother.
MIA's lyrics are unsurprisingly infused with a raw political energy; unlike most performers who sing about war, poverty and persecution, she has actually had to live through all of it....
And these experiences clearly have put a chip on her shoulder (in the good way of course), and some of her songs e.g. "Paper Planes" have such an intensely personal quality to them that it becomes hard not to become a convert. Her music melds together so many genres that it would be too time consuming to mention all of them, but suffice it to say that when I think of MIA, I mostly think of weird tribal grunge voodoo, with some trance, house, grime, and heavy bass elements thrown in.
Because of US Visa problems and also because of her political views and support for liberation of those being oppressed, (she doesn't hide her ideas on violent action/resistance of people oppressed by dictators or autocrats. She also doesn't shy away from laying blame where blame is considerably due; the fact that the blame is often levied at one or two countries is both instructive and explanatory), she has not yet reached the level of success in the United States as she has in the rest of the world (not that I particularly mind that fact). While recording and touring this record, MIA spent time in the South Pacific and Austral-Asia, both South and Central America and a lot of time in India learning about and recording traditional drum patters, and many of the tracks have some of these tracks mixed in there. It really is a smattering of global influences and world/web-traveled. Let's go over the songs themselves.
1. "Bamboo Banga" is a crazy opening track with a killer beat with MIA disinterestedly but methodically referencing the Modern Lovers song "Roadrunner." You can't help but fall in love with it's driving and playful drive. You can almost see her in concert singing this song through a mega-phone; a very strong and confident opening track which will undoubtedly spawn numerous remixes.
2. "Bird Flu" is a serious second track. Technically, it's classified as a Tamil rap song, called a "gaana." From the very start, it's all about an organized chaos that is familiar to fans of MIA. An irrepressible and creative drum underlies some pretty crazy shit (something that sounds like a rooster crow and freaky little children voices). MIA also throws a nice little lyrical gem in at the end that makes my philosophical heart flutter, stating "The village got on the phone/said the street is coming to town. They wanna check my papers/see what I carry around. Credentials are boring/I burned them at the buirial ground." But make no mistake, this comes from a place most people cannot really imagine: being asked daily to prove who you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, and trying to prove you're not a terrorist.
3. "Boyz" incorporates the same traditional drums as the earlier songs, and is also a "gaana." This song is infectious, and chart-worthy, if it wasn't so blatantly ironic. But no matter, this song is such an "outside-block-party-in-uncomfortably-hot-weather" track that it's hard to not like it. Underlying it all is the idea of constricting masculinity, something that MIA is not afraid to rightly point out, having lived in fairly hard-type masculinized societies herself. "How many no money boys are crazy/how many boyz are raw. How many no money boys are rowdy/how many start a war?" she asks rhetorically. There is an alternative to the military and war of course, but who can say if it would be less authoritarian for women or in fact more? If that is the question, she hints at a disturbing answer, singing "Oh gosh, it's the new warlord."
4. "Jimmy" is a cover of a Bollywood song which MIA used to dance to as a youngster. It too, has "hot single" written all over it. It's a pretty uplifting track that seems to dance all over the place without losing the count - like your uncle who came to your 12th birthday party, except not drunk.
5. "Hussel" is a little disappointing and simple compared to the rest of the album; she took this song off. I mean, it's a pretty good song and everything, it just seems a little tongue-in-cheek lyrically speaking. The addition of Afrikan Boy is a plus here, and the sonic quality of the song itself is nice but for some odd reason, it seems off; like 50-Cent rapping about how he's just a businessman while selling albums that teach young urban kids being shot gets you respect and street credibility. and that teaches white suburban kids to buy guns and Escalades and try to be tough. Maybe I'm wrong. But let's move on. The first half is over, welcome to the second.
6. "Mango Pickle Down River" is one of my favourites on Kala. Forget "Hussel" and Afrikan Boy, get introduced the zombiefied Wilcannia Mob from New South Wales, Australia. This song rattles, buzzes and hums itself into a twirling, vampiric-voodoo magic of goodness. The overpowering yet comfortable hug of the didgeridoo is something I can never tire of. The first half of Kala is over, welcome to the second. The Wilcannia kids' parts are basically about what they used to do in their hometown of Wilcannia, which involved a lot of swimming and fishing. This is a pretty fun song, but you can be deceived by the low-fi quality of it at first.
7. After the intensity of "Down River," "$20" is a nice and surprising turn of events. I like to call this style slow-grind-indictment but I don't really know why. MIA opens up with an incredibly harrowing Eastern-sounding call to prayer followed by some pretty quick lyrics. Some personal favourites, "War, war, war! 'Talkin' 'bout' y'all's such a bore/I'd rather talk about moi!" and "Rah rah rah, So I woke up with my holy Koran/found out I like Cadillac." It's a frenetic, ADD take on certain problems in the world but rather than being able to say something productive, the mind cannot deal and we are left with the popular youthful opt-out, "Where is my mind?" (courtesy of the Pixies). Because we have to allow that some people's heads may, in fact, be empty and thus be on the verge of collapse.
8. "World Town" is a rhythmic number suited to the club; that is, it is what the kids call a "booty-shaker." That is all.
9. "The Turn" offers a slightly different side of MIA and has her actually singing instead of rapping. It's not that she's bad at all - she's good; I just think she's a better rapper than a singer and even on this track she is blending the two. It's a nice track, kind of underwhelming like "World Town" but good nonetheless.
10. "XR2" is a weird tune that reminds me of a rave and my older brothers' friends' cars. It's just so old school and it evens references ICQ. How obscure.
11. "Paper Planes" is my favourite song off this album by far. MIA uses a sample from the Clash's "Straight to Hell." It has had it's share of controversy in the media involving censorship of some words and sounds (gunshots and "weed") which incensed fans and artist alike. MIA is also at her singing-rappish best here, referencing her Visa problems and frustrations with bureaucracy. She has also mentioned that this song is also about the lust for power and money and a hatred of immigrants. The controversial chorus, in fact, is a statement about the popular xenophobic belief in some conspiracy of illegal immigrants that want to take all of our money by stealing our jobs. It's a great song and her voice is just really moving.
12. "Come Around" features Timbaland. It's a great song until Timbaland comes in and really screws it up. His part is terrible and he sounds terrible - do people like Timbaland?
Overall,
Kala is an impressive and addictive album that talks the talk and is able, for the most part, to walk the walk. MIA is a gifted, far-ranging artist who is not afraid to voice her opinions on some of the most important issues of our time (Palestine, Third-World liberation, women's rights) despite the direct consequences she has had to endure because of her decisions. I don't really see MIA being upset about this though, as her fame in other countries (including Canada) has continued to increase at ridiculous rates. MIA will always be a red-flag target because of her father's involvement with armed rebellion and the Tamil Tigers, whom are US State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and because of her commitment to speaking her mind. Her use of Tamil imagery and the group's use of suicide bombings make her the easiest target since the Dixie Chicks. Yet, I think Maya simply has the substance to make claims and is plenty intelligent enought to tell you why she believes what she believes in and why.
"The world", she says,
"
can't be separated into two separate parts, good and evil, like George Bush has done. Terrorism is a method. But America has successfully tied all these pockets of independent struggles, revolutions and extremists into one big notion of terrorism."
Smart, pretty, creative, makes amazing songs, and is politically active: what more are you waiting for?
- Adam Smith
