About this item

The majority of MIA's second LP "Kala" was made when she was supposed to be taking time out and travelling. When she ended up in Chennai, India, she spent weeks recording live drum patterns with local percussionists, writing new songs like "BirdFlu" and "20 Dollar", holed up in a studio used normally for Bollywood soundtracks. Subsequent trips found her writing and recording in Trinidad, Jamaica, Australia, Japan and briefly in the US, and then these 'field recordings' were turned into full tracks with the help of Baltimore's Blaqstarr, Aussie hip hopper Morganics, Switch and Hollertronix man Diplo, creating the globetrottin' electro-rockin' monsters you have before you. So while "Arular" was a bedroom dancehall rocker, "Kala" is a different beast, it's the beat of the street itself — the sound of roadside sound systems, taxicab transistors, DVD-wired dollar vans, motorbike couriers and parking lot pull-ups. It's also the sound of MIA digging in as both an artist and a producer.