M.I.A. seems to have been ready to drop her fourth album, Matangi for ages. However, it looks like it will be released on November 3.

There’s been various rumours about her and the record company not seeing eye to eye on the release. Whateve

r the reasons, the bits of music that have filtered through are great

. This is the latest track to do the rounds, which sanples both Carly Simon’s ‘Why’ and blur’s ‘Tender.’

I’ve posted this before, the single from earlier this year ‘Bring The Noize.’ At the time I wrote: ‘It’s incendiary, and rather like sticking your fingers in a plug. I was half asleep when I pressed play, it’s better than a shot of double espresso to the brain…’

Whilst we’re still waiting for the new, fourth album from M.I.A.,

Matangi (which seems to

have taken almost as long as Azealia Banks’ Broke With Expensive Taste), she has finally released a new single ‘Bring The Noize.’

It’s incendiary, and rather like sticking your fingers in a plug. I was half asleep when I pressed play, it’s better than a shot of double espresso to the brain…

A very welcome retur

n. It sounds like the album has been difficult – but if this is a taste of what it’s like, then it would seem it has been worth the wait. It’s currently rumoured to be out in July.

This is an eight minute preview of the album

M.I.A. ‘ /\/\ /\ Y /\’ (XL)

Following on from 2005’s astounding debut Arular and 2007’s fantatsic Kala, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam returns with an amazing third album.

The first thing to say is that anyone who was lulled into M.I.A.’s world by the awesome ‘Paper Planes’ single, built around the riff from the Clash’s ‘Straight To Hell’ should not expect this record to be comprised of similar sounding tracks. The first single to be released from the album ‘Born Free’, with its’ accompanying video which was pulled by YouTube for gr

aphic violence remains one of the most starting and best tracks to be released so far this year. It’s a controversial video that’s

very much in your face and it’s an astonishing song, built around the riff from Suicide’s ‘Ghostrider’ from their seminal 1977 debut. Suicide were too much for many of the punk audiences and this is typical of how several years into her career M.I.A. is on her own terms and still marching to her own tunes.

That’s not to say that M.I.A. is going to be away from the airwaves -‘XXXO’ is a tune that Lady GaGa or La Roux would kill for. The thng about M.I.A. is that she has the appeal and approach to genuinely distort and subvert the mai

nstream, perhaps in the way that Depeche Mode took the skewed take on the world of bands like Throbbing Gristle and into the top ten and the world’s stadia. You can, after all, surround the houses of parliament, or you can storm it

by subversion.

There

are certainly lyrics on here that will be deemed ‘NSFW’ (‘Not Safe For Work.’ Keep up). On ‘Steppin’ Up’ – a record that features a drill to, er, sma

shing effect M.I.A. informs us ‘You know who I am/I run this fucking club.’ Several times. This is an album that mixes hip-hop with electronica, as before, but with such a sonic ferocity that few albums could match this. Think the aforementioned Suicide debut or Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Million To Hold Us Back.

Lightning strikes for a third time on this album. M.I.A’s taking absolutely no prisoners and whilst I was unsure on my first listen I’m absolutely smitten on my third. Don’t be fooled by the magazine covers and chart positions, this lady has lost none of her firepower and I suspect if she’d ever appeared on a TV show with Russell Harty he would not dare have ignored her. Chances are, he can’t from the grave either…

****1/2

M.I.A.’s website/M.I.A.’s myspace

Stream

the album here

This isn’t the official video but you can hear the

track in its’ glory here.

and if you still haven’t seen it, that controversial ‘Born Free’ video in full…

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

By the way, M.I.A.’s birthday is today (July 17). Happy Birthday!

M.I.A. was responsible for two the the best albums of the last decade, in Arular and Kala. She’s set to release her third, self-title

d album in the next couple of months and the first track to do the rounds is nothing less than astonishing.

‘Born Free’ which can be str

eamed at her myspace is a fast and furious track (think almost as fast as ‘Charly’ by The Prodigy) and is built upon

‘Ghostrider,’ the opening track from Suicide’s eponymous 1977 album.

And as for the in your face video for the song…let’s just say that all of a sudden, Chris Cunningham’s work with the likes of the Aphex Twin see

ms a little tame, compared to this mini-film by Romain Gavras.

One of the tracks of the year, take it from me.

‘Born Free’ is out now, the album foll

ows on June 29.

M.I.A. ‘Paper Planes.’

…making major inroads in the U.S. too.

Surely her time is now…loving that Clash sample as well…

Album Review -M.I.A ‘Kala.’ (XL Recordings)

In 2005, M.I.A released her debut album Arular. It was an album that demanded attention, uncompromising yet catchy, hard as nails, yet utterly irresisitible. Hell, even the skits on the record were worth it. Named after her Dad, too.

And two years later, she delivers a second album Kala, named after her Mum, that shows she hans’t stood still at all. She continues to draw on her Sri Lankan heritage to deliver cooler than thou raps, yet this album is truely world music, recorded across three continents and mixing in some fantastic samples that include didgeridoos, indian pop, and Jonathan Richman and the Clash.

‘Jimmy’ could get any disco moving, and ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ reminds us that t

here’s indigenous music being produced in Australia that deserves a bigger hearing. From the opener ‘Bamboo banga’ to the closing ‘Come Around’ featuring producer du jour Timbaland, this is one of the most essential albums you will hear this year.

****1/2

M.I.A. -‘Bamboo Banga.’ mp3

M.I.A. -‘Mango Pickle Down River (withthe Wilcannia Mob).’ mp3