Releases
M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\ Instores July 13th
Exploding back into the cultural limelight, M.I.A. returns this summer with her third full length release, /\/\ /\ Y /\, the follow-up to her Canadian Gold selling sophomore album, KALA and the explosive, pioneering debut, Arular.
Prefaced by the singles Born Free and XXXO (currently Single of the Week at Radio 1), the album is available as a standard CD release with 16 page booklet, a UK import gatefold double LP and a deluxe limited edition lenticular slipcase CD with 4 exclusive bonus tracks.
3rd single in iTunes exclusive Countdown to /\/\ /\ Y /\ campaign, Steppin’ Out, is now available for download. Born Free and XXXO are both Top 10 sellers. Paper Planes continues to sell hundreds a week.
Visit www.factmag.com to hear ‘Steppin Up’, which was recently debuted by Zane Lowe on his Radio 1 show (his “Hottest Record In The World”) and Jay Z’s brand new remix of XXXO.
A video for XXXO, shot by Hype Williams, the man behind Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and the Notorious B.I.G.‘s “Mo Money Mo Problems”, will be released imminently.
Working with Kala alum Blaqstarr, Switch, and Diplo, (who has been part of both previous M.I.A. discs) along with Rusko, the later says of /\/\ /\ Y /\ “If you’re an M.I.A. fan and you buy a new M.I.A. record, you want to hear something you’ve never heard before. This record gives you that.”
Rusko, current reigning champ of the dubstep scene, has been called “one of the most promising producers of his generation” by DJ Magazine.
In addition, the album also features production from N.E.E.T. Records recording artist, Sleigh Bells.
- The Oscar and Grammy nominated M.I.A. is never one to turn away from controversy, evidenced by her Born Free video. Directed by Romain Gavras (The Last Shadow Puppets, Justice and DJ Mehdi), it features government troops rounding up and then brutally killing red-headed young men. Banned almost
immediately from youtube, it has garnered over 8 million hits from various sites across the web. It is available to view now at www.miauk.com
/\/\ /\ Y /\ is being supported by a world-wide campaign that is spanning all media, including a MASSIVE web-based intiative. Watch for coverage in GQ, Pitchfork, Rollingstone, Interview, Wired, and Vibe
Currently the June / July cover story in Nylon Magazine, M.I.A. graces the cover of the latest issue of Billboard Magazine with an expansive interview.
M.I.A. is scheduled to appear July 13th on Late Show With David Letterman and July 14th on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.
Touring heavily in support of the album with her first North American performance July 17th in Los Angeles, M.I.A. headlines the inagural HARD LA festival, followed by HARD NY on the 24th, and then a run of European festivals before her return to Canada in the fall. - M.I.A. recently sat down with Lynn Hirschberg of the New York Times in what could be the most controversial interview since Frost / Nixon and spawned a storm across twitter…have a read at www.nytimes.com and then check the follow-up from M.I.A. at twitter.com/beggarscanada
“During “Space,” the dreamy future-shock ballad that closes her upcoming third album, M.I.A. repeatedly coos, “My lines are down/You can’t call me,” over a gently percolating beat that sounds like a Sega Genesis practicing its pillow talk. It’s just one of the many observations on our data-drenched Infotainment Age that crop up throughout “/\/\ /\ Y /\,” a stunning, more-or-less self-titled effort from the
34-year-old Sri Lankan native born Maya Arulpragasam.” – Billboard
“So, let’s be clear: MIA’s music is fantastic. A self-taught rapper, songwriter and producer, she makes infectious, inventive tunes that smash and grab from hip-hop, grime, rave and punk, stir things up with Jamaican beats, Indian rhythms, African drums. She samples with abandon, from older artists such as the Clash and Suicide, as well as from the sounds that surround her: cash registers, toy instruments, the Tamils’ urumee drum. Her lyrics are interesting, too: fluid, ambiguous, hard to decipher, they mix up gangsta talk – “Some some some I murder” – with patois, London slang, silliness, personal observation. After just one LP, 2005’s Arular, rapper Nas commented: “Her sound is the future.” – The Guardian
“Boasting a stage name that means missing in action (war zone implied), the Brooklyn-based British Sri Lankan has always been mercurial, volatile, elusive. As much smash-and-grab as cut-and-paste. 2005’s Arular (titled after her absent militant father) and 2007’s Kala (after her refugee single mom) burst with splashes of disorienting static. A fluorescent hall of weed smoke and cracked mirrors. Double-Dutch jumps across borders. But unlike the nomadic cultural-attaché persona she adopted for Kala — after visa issues disrupted plans to record in the U.S. — M.I.A. plants her feet firmly with this self-titled album, which she created primarily in America while tending to a newborn son. Aside from “Lovealot,” she proudly proclaims her intentions as a firstworld pop star, de-emphasizing found collage and “third-world democracy” for melodic sway and punky bluster (aided by familiar producers Switch, Blaqstarr, and Diplo, plus newbies Rusko and Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller)“ – 4.5 out of 5 – SPIN Magazine
“M.I.A. / XXXO – Easily the most mainstream-sounding track she’s ever recorded, this dance floor-friendly, pop-culture-laden track (Twitter and the iPhone both figure in the lyrics) could be slipped into the middle of mixtape of Madonna, Rihanna, and Britney singles.” – Toronto Star
Comment
