Neon Musical Insight

Review by Caitlin Wittlif

Artistic concept albums are not normally associated with accessibility, so the fact that /\/\/\Y/\ is a difficult record to synthesize should be unsurprising. However, after two albums of solid, political hip hop-meets-dance pop tunes, M.I.A.’s latest offering can be a little hard to swallow. There are imposing industrial buzzes and whirs, skipped beats, auto-tuning, and layers upon layers of other technological masks.

This is completely in line with /\/\/\Y/\’s cover art; you can just see M.I.A.’s eyes peeking through a barrage of sound bars, and 3D art covers the rest of her. Still, one of M.I.A.’s strengths is her ability to punch listeners in the gut with her reality. Here, the artist’s heavy reliance on wild, cacophonous noise leaves her identity a bit lost in the mix.

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DOWNLOAD MP3: Sleigh Bells – “Crown On The Ground”

One of the bigger break out bands from last year’s CMJ was a band named Sleigh Bells. A noise pop duo based out of Brooklyn, Sleigh Bells have been breaking on the scene, mostly in part to their bombastic, unkempt sound. M.I.A. was spotted checking them out last October during CMJ at the Market Hotel, so it comes as no surprise that the two have decided to link up for her forthcoming album due out early summer.

Thanks to Diplo’s sporadic twittering habbit, this bit of info was dropped last night:

“All day finishin up these @_m_i_a tracks… Its official.. This team is from the FUTURE!! – diplo rusko switch mia blaqstarr sleighbellz FTW”

To confirm, Sleigh Bells’ manager informed the Village Voice that Sleigh Bells songwriter:

“Derek [Miller] did production work on the album.”

Sleigh Bells also revealed that picture that you see above via their myspace on Tuesday, with a simple headliner that read “WE ARE IN THE STUDIO” — which most likely is to record their debut full-length, being that it is slated to come out sometime this year. On top of that all, Sleigh Bells will also will be acting as openers for a large porting of Major Lazer and Yeasayer’s upcoming tour in late March. Busy year. Dates are below.

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DOWNLOAD MP3: Major Lazers – “Halo” (cover)

Beyoncé may not have won the “Album of the Year” award last night at the 2010 Grammy’s, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love her. Here is a brand new Reggae version of “Halo” from Swith and Diplo’s collaborated project, Major Lazers — along with Elefant Man — that they dropped via twitter last night in spirit of the festivities.

Both members of Lazers are also hard at work on M.I.A’s third LP due out early summer.

It’s about damn time! No but for reals, Diplo recently stated that M.I.A. is actually hard at  work with her follow-up to 2007’s amazing mindfuck, Kala, and they’ve actually made progress, with about four tracks already being completed! Pedestrian.tv was lucky enough to score an interview in which producer/ DJ, Diplo had the following to say:

“Been in the studio with M.I.A. working on her new record. It’s like Gucci Mane meets Animal Collective. I think there are a couple of people [producing] but we’re going to finish it off, me and Switch. We’ve done like four tracks already.”

Animal Collective matched with Gucci Mane? Only M.I.A. could pull something off like that.

Oh, and also keep an eye out for Major Lazers very own ‘Adult Swim’ series… imagine what that would be like. Maybe something like this.