New music -- M.I.A. - Kala

I've had my eye on this since hearing the debut single about four months ago.  Born in Sri Lanka, raised in England, with a background in visual and video art, MIA is this superflex mix of influences.  Taking the source influences of Third World/developing contries, and running them through the filter of traditional western electronic music.  Visually and aurally, this voice crying from the edges of geopolitical influence, and the heart of the modern city.

Kala

Debut single from "Kala":

BOYZ

And top single from her first album:

MIA Galang

Comments

[Mujhe Wora Chaiye]

The first album was wayyy better.  There's an awesome song on the Kala called Paper Planes - I'm not sure if that was the you tube vid; my computer wouldn't play sound for that.  Jeff burnt me a copy of this divine mix cd of samples over Galang that she made, but I've lost it.  If I can find it it's going on the party mix for sure.  

[Peter]

Gah!  I hate buying the wrong CD, you know, the one that is one album too late?  Hopefully there is still some good stuff on this one, but I'll keep an eye out for her first album.  That mix cd sounds great.  I need to get Jeff to hook me up with some of his material.   :)

[Shannon Reibel]

[c’est top] Interesting sound.

[Shannon Reibel]

Hmmm...somehow the bulk of my post got lost in translation.  Anywho.  I dig the sounds but must admit that I had an aesthetic allergic reaction to the videos.  The cartooning on the second was coo, but I found the gyrating spandex rather distracting from the otherwise good grooves and socio-political message (what I could decipher of it).  The second song has been stuck in my head...may have to get it.  Have you heard of Baba Maal?  Singer/songwriter from Senegal - more traditional world music but a great survey of sounds.  .Mi Ywenii (Missing You) is my favorite album of his.  Haley gave it the big nod.  Check it.

[Peter]

Yeah, it's funny.  The visuals on her Boyz video are so so loud.  "Epileptic" could be used to describe it.  I think it fits perfectly with her sound, in that they are both this graffiti influenced "outsider" aesthetic.   I'm always a big fan of imagining images to go with music, and in this case MIA has done the job for me. 

She herself is a visual artist, I think that was her college background before dropping out to do music, and she did all the backgrounds for both videos (I think).   So yes, very loud and abrasive...but not pointlessly so, which becomes my litmus test for anything visual...  ;)

Thanks for the heads up on Baba Maal.

[Peter]

I can't remember specifics, but there is an area of Africa where the people literally wallpaper their homes interiors with really loud Coca Cola ads, etc.  It's a fascinating look at the global absorption of first world ideas.  My understanding is that because the ads/crates/etc are "new" and "flashy" they carry connotations of prosperity, and the bright colors also fit with the traditional African aesthetic in some ways. 

So it becomes this fascinating process of approximation, integrating these outside elements--not by complete choice--but making something your own, something unique with them.   That's a fuller picture of how I see the Boyz visuals fitting with the idea of "outsider art."

Cheers   :)

[Shannon Reibel]

Crazy talk...let me know if you can did the particulars or source of said info from your brain b/c that smacks of a visual culture art lesson just dying to make its way into the classroom!  (Note to self must google that!).  Have you seen THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY?  Just loving the notion of culture clash over CocaCola - which let's face it is one of the most amazing examples of design consistency and prowess ever! 

I feel you on the color/traditional African aesthetic in these videos; however, I'd have to do some digging on her work before I can credit her w/ critical intent or just bad taste on some of these visuals.  But then again, I must admit a bias towards "insider art," elitist oil-painter that I am.

Joyeuse Noelle 

 

[Mujhe Wora Chaiye]

I'll bet she gets into subaltern theory.  Peter, what you said about "making something your own" got me thinking.  That's the impetus behind much of my art and I found MIA fascinating because she deals with a lot of similar cultural/theoretical baggage and boons.  Her father was a Tamil Tiger terrorist, which sheds some light on the prancing big cats, too.  I've not heard of the african tribe you're talking about, but I can certainly see what you're saying (in my head it looks like "Africa goes Warhol"). I certainly found her neons completely violating the first time I saw her videos, and only after revisiting her aesthetic can I suppress the urge to recoil, in Boyz.  Sorry this post is all over the place.  Check this out if you have time - http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/20217-piracy-funds-terrorism-vol-1-mixed-by-diplo

[Peter]

Interesting writeup, Nish.  I've been working on this idea that modern consumer culture, in one way or another, isolates most of us into "have nots", even first world people don't get to live in Times Square, or the house in the Hills, so that conceivably, everyone has some reapproximation to do.  It makes me think about punk in the 80's as this blind rage response to the social channelling around us.  I think graffitti, sampling, techno and other elements of "approximation culture" fit with that idea of trying to find a separate peace with the elements and roles that our social mileau offers.

This also fits with (computer) hacking culture, and more than most djs--well, MIA is just drawing from a much larger pool of influences, and is also willing to bend further outside of what is culturally respectable, aurally speaking, so there is this sense of noise, musically and visually, but also a strong image of empowerment, I think, of crafting an individual voice out of all this disperate pieces.  That's what I like about her music, and about sampling, tagging, hacking culture in general.  Who says you should only use iTunes to run your iPod?  Hackers write programs to "liberate" their iPods and give themselves freedom to express and use their own technology. 

Do you or Jeff have a copy of the mixtape the Pfork article describes?

[Peter]

Took an initial look at some subaltern theory info, and you're right, it does fit very well.  Makes some of my comments about in-culture marginalization seem a bit paltry in comparison to the influence of colonialism on developing nations.  Strong matchup, nicely connected.

[Mujhe Wora Chaiye]

Jeff had great programming to convert video to ipod friendly formats, but it died along with his last computer.

[Peter]

Alas for Jeff's computer, so many interesting things that apparently disappeared with it...like the sacking of the Alexandrine Library!    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria