|
 Every
now and again, an album comes along riding on a wave of hype, crashing
onto Hyperbole Island; to be labelled by deserted music fans and starving
critics as, ‘The most important album in ages’.
The good ship ‘Arular’, the debut album from M.I.A, is one classic example
of such a maelstrom of media attention. Having been nominated for a
much-celebrated Mercury Music Prize, M.I.A. sprung to attention, the media
lavishing praise on the hip-hop stylings of the Sri-Lanka born beauty.
So, does ‘Arular’, with its frenzied fusion of electronic, hip-hop and
‘world music’ sail home in grand fashion like the Endeavour, or does it
crash into an iceberg of mediocrity and drown under the weight of its own
hype like the Titanic?
The answer, thankfully and surprisingly, is the former.
The most notable feature of this diverse album is that, over every
simplistic rhythm, weighty bassline and funky-weird sound effect, comes
the unique, energetic and strangely seductive voice of a young woman who
actually has something to say.
As the story goes, the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel, a young Maya
Arul (that is her real name, by the way) fled to England at the age of
ten, with only five English words in her vocabulary (apple, mango,
elephant and Michael Jackson, for the curious amongst you).
Eighteen years on, and it is more than obvious that her verbal arsenal has
expanded to military proportions, using it to great effect as she tells
her tales of bombs, guns and violence.
Yet this is not another generic, gun culture promoting rap album. For
though hip-hop does make up the blueprint here, ‘Arular’ actually owes
much to dance and electronica, throwing in bongo drums, sitars, and
Neptunes' styled “blipy-bleepy” things to create an exciting, fun and
confident sound.
Think Asian Dub Foundation having a knees up with Gwen Stefani, then
forget it, check out stand-out track ‘Galang’ and ride ‘Arular’ to musical
paradise.
Recommended Links:
http://www.miauk.com
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