Pages tagged “manu chao”

It's tempting to call Manu Chao a "child of the world" or some other such tripe like that, but the man is what he is: multi-lingual, thirsty for new sounds and constantly on the move. We at Paste have really enjoyed his new release, La Radiolina, but Chao has been out making music for decades now. The singer's current label, Nacional Records, is digging into his past later this month by reissuing a few artifacts from the Chao discography.

First up: 2001's studio album, Proxima Estación: Esperanza. Also on the reissue docket: live releases entitled Radio Bemba Live and Babylonia En Guagua. Given Chao's reputation for bringing the heat on stage, these two records could be the pick of the litter. All three re-released albums arrive Nov. 20 digitally, with a physical release on Nacional to follow in January.

For those interested in more recent Chao material, RollingStone.com is offering a free .mp3 of "Politik Kills," drawn from La Radiolina. Chao's "Mala Fama" also appears on the sampler CD in Paste's November issue, on newsstands now (as if you didn't know).

Related links:
ManuChao.net
Manu Chao on MySpace
YouTube: Manu Chao - "Welcome to Tijuana" live

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Four songs into La Radiolina, an onslaught of beefy, staccato guitar chords chop like butcher knives into a mix of vertigo-inducing electronics and air-raid sirens. Amid the chaos, a tiny voice repeatedly shouts, “Welcome to Paradise!”

This is the way Manu Chao sets the tone for his political fireball of a new album. On La Radiolina, his first studio release in six years, the multilingual singer blames the U.S.—particularly the Bush administration—for the “wind of sadness” that blows over the world today. From the reggaefied, spaghetti-Western vibe of “Politik Kills” (in which the singer reminds us in English that political supremacy is dependant on violence, deception and an ignorant populace) to the gentle, Spanish-language “Otro Mundo” (“Another World,” his Lennonesque imagining of a world without war and fear), Chao wields his sweet voice and warm melodies as weapons of mass reconstruction.

It’s no surprise that one of the most poignant protest albums released since the U.S. invaded Iraq would come from a French singer with Spanish roots. Before the term “Latin alternative” was coined to distinguish the hip from the old-guard in rock en español, there was the band Mano Negra, which translates into English as the Black Hand. Chao, born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao in Paris 46 years ago, formed that politically charged, globally important punk band in 1987, modeling it on English-language protest rockers like The Clash, Mekons, Dead Kennedys and Bob Marley.

As a solo artist, Chao hasn’t let up. The title song of his 1998 debut, Clandestino, blended laidback, freewheeling, reggae-inspired music with lyrics about being forced into exile. (His parents left their native Spain for France to escape the fascist Franco regime.) That might explain Chao’s barely concealed rage against the Bush machine in the chaotic “Rainin’ in Paradize,” wherein he reels off lines in English like, “in Baghdad, it’s no democracy, that’s just because it’s a U.S. country.”

Not everything is political in Chao’s musical world, although everything eventually comes back to politics. In the flamenco-tinged “Me Llaman Calle” (“They Call Me Street”), he sings touchingly, in Spanish, of the lonely lives of prostitutes. And over the downhome, upbeat, bluesy funk of “Besoin de la Lune” (“I Need the Moon”), he confesses, in French, his own need for love. The album’s only weakness is the dated, retro-New Wave tune “The Bleedin Clown,” in which he assumes the clichéd image of a sad clown and stumbles over English-language lines like, “I lost my reputation crown, there’s nothing on me but a bleeding clown.” Huh?

Chao recovers quickly, though, delivering a more modern take on New Wave in “Y Ahora Qué?” (“And Now What?”), in which it seems he’s searching for a more spiritual solution to current world crises.

Rev up the Internet Explorer browser to stream Manu Chao's new album, La Radiolina in its entirety on MTV's "The Leak." Dropping next Tuesday on Nacional/Because Music, it will mark Chao's first US release in six years. The multi-lingual, politically-charged lyrics by the Barcelona-native are heavily critical of this great nation, so perhaps it's only right for him to say it to our collective face, as it were.

I suppose the gun-happy cowboy in US flag pantalones featured in the video for "Rainin in Paradise" says it all (view two other versions of this video here):

Chao is currently hosting a series of listening parties leading up to the release, followed up by a European tour in October (MySpace, linked below, has the details).

Related links:
MTV: The Leak - La Radiolina
ManuChao.net
Manu Chao on MySpace

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Tomorrow, July 24, multilingual alt-rocker Manu Chao will digitally release an EP “sneak-preview” of his upcoming album, La Radiolina. It features (and is named after) “Rainin in Paradise,” a danceable rocker with cynical lyrics backed by emergency-vehicle sirens.

"My little radio [Radiolina's English translation] is much different than "Rainin,'" Chao, a multi-linguist, told the Philadelphia Inquirer."It'll be a fruit salad in comparison."

Chao’s first US release in six years, La Radiolina will hit shelves Sept. 4 on Nacional/Because.

Related links:
ManuChao.net
Manu Chao on MySpace
Video: Manu Chao - "Desaparedico"

Got news for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.