{"id":2638,"date":"2010-09-21T13:33:31","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T17:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2010-09-21T13:33:31","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T17:33:31","slug":"i-like-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=2638","title":{"rendered":"I Like Noise"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like noise. I can\u2019t think of a better way to say it. Whether listing to HipGnosis Glitch.FM pod casts <\/a>that features the sound of a computer in it\u2019s death throes, the grinding distortion of Sleigh Bells<\/a>, or the latest album from M.I.A., I can no longer deny it. Yes, I understand that to many it just sounds like noise, but I really, really like that noise.<\/p>\n

I came to this conclusion after buying M.I.A.\u2019s latest album \u201cMaya\u201d. Some of you may have been made at least passingly familiar with the album due to the controversy surrounding the first video released, \u201cBorn Free\u201d. The video features nudity and graphic violence, so it may not be your visual cup of tea, but for those of you who feel you\u2019ll be all right with this totally not safe for work video can view it here<\/a>. With the visuals now out of the way, let\u2019s focus on the sound of the album.<\/p>\n

M.I.A., and the producers she worked with, created a fantastic sonic mash up that I would compare to N.E.R.D.\u2019s awesome \u201cSeeing Sounds\u201d album<\/a>, which I called a \u201cJackson Pollack painting pressed onto a disc.\u201d Thumping bass, industrial noise, distorted voices, glitch style hiccups, danceable reggae, melodic vocals, and more, converge into one album; sometimes one song. I find it impressive, inventive, and fearless. <\/p>\n

Lyrically it\u2019s obvious M.I.A. has information politics on the mind. With lyrics like, \u201cI licked envelopes, wrote a letter to the pope. He never gave me rope, in the times I couldn\u2019t cope. They cleaned up the dope and censored my scope. The writing on the walls been beaten to a pulp. All I ever wanted was my story to be told,\u201d from the song \u201cStory to be Told\u201d. Also \u201cWho says all the rules are made by rulers? We break \u2018em and breakin\u2019 their computers. I ain\u2019t buying no more from the looters who try to out school us,\u201d from the track \u201cMeds and Feds\u201d.<\/p>\n

A personal favorite from the album, \u201cLovalot\u201d, says, \u201cI really love a lot, but I fight the ones who fight me.\u201d The way M.I.A. delivers the line \u201cI really love a lot\u201d is very fluid, so the words kind of run together. At first I thought she was saying, \u201cI really love the law, but I fight the ones who fight me,\u201d which I was taking as a political message of how the law can still leave average citizens vulnerable. Once I learned it was \u201cI really love a lot\u201d, I thought, well that\u2019s better. Who doesn\u2019t love the idea of a gentle soul that will still fight when pressed? (As Hyde from \u201cThat 70\u2019s Show\u201d would say, \u201cWhere Zen end, ass kicking begins.\u201d) However, Kitty Empire of \u201cThe Observer\u201d<\/a> summed the track up best with, \u201cSo you may not agree that the CIA controls Google, as intro track \u2018The Message\u2019 posits. You might not wonder what went on in the mind of Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, the Russian teenager who bombed Moscow’s tube system to vindicate the death of her husband, an Islamic militant. But MIA does, and her \u2018Lovalot\u2019 ponders her inner world with a mixture of nonsense rhyme, militant posturing and pop-cultural free-flow; her London glottal stop mischievously turns \u2018I love a lot\u2019 into \u2018I love Allah\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

M.I.A. could have sat back and done a whole album of \u201c Paper Planes<\/a>\u201d (the song from her previous album \u201cKala\u201d that brought her mainstream recognition) and made a fortune off stoner college kids who seemed to have overlooked such buzz killing lyrics as \u201cSome, some, some, I some I murder. Some, I some, I let go.\u201d Whoa to the shopper expecting a catchy, pop friendly album, because M.I.A.\u2019s album is the equivalent of a boot to the throat of that listener\u2026.but you can dance to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"