M.I.A’s latest audiovisual project, Matahdatah Scroll 01 ‘Broader Than A Border’, dropped late last night exclusively on Apple Music and is now available to view on M.I.A’s website. Scroll 01 is just the first in a series of audiovisual releases that will make up M.I.A’s next album, titled Matahdatah.
A press release from camp M.I.A says that, “Matahdatah Scroll 01 ‘Broader Than A Border’ is the first in a series of truly global and characteristically DIY M.I.A. releases over the coming months. Each bundle will feature a collection of new M.I.A. songs, each accompanied by videos directed and edited by M.I.A. herself with each video filmed in a different country. The individual sections will ultimately come together to form Matahdatah — a full-length album and film experience about borders.”
Watch Matahdata Scroll 01 on M.I.A’s Tumblr
Though there were conflicting reports about what would be on this release, with M.I.A posting on her Instagram that it would be a three-track release “12 mins long of a journey around the plAnet [sic]”. What was actually revealed last night is around half that length and seems to feature only two songs, the new metallic banger Swords alongside Warriors from 2013’s Matangi album.
Swords blends the metal clashing sound of a sword fight with traditional Indian singing, beats at the awesome cross-section of hip hop and bhangra, and of course M.I.A’s inimitable rap stylings: “Everything banging like we’re in Bangalore”. The film follows young female sword performers doing their thing in the street, standing on horses and at a public show, whipping poles around their heads; M.I.A sits cross-legged by the Ganges as people waft long saris on the steps. “My new song “Swords” was filmed in a Temple in India and we recorded the clang of the metal to make the beat at the same time as shooting these incredible girls,” M.I.A says.
A green goddess who may be Green Tara, the Hindu Mother Earth, performs traditional Indian singing before the film moves to West Africa, showing the male Ivorian dancer M.I.A said she had been looking for two years, when the brakes were (seemingly temporarily) put on by her record company worrying about cultural appropriation. “Warriors was shot in Cote d’Ivoire with a guy I saw in a youtube video doing the most incredible dancing. I tracked down that exact guy, flew out there and played him the Warriors track. He did his thing for me,” M.I.A says, explaining that, “He is a spiritual warrior and communicates through dancing. It’s a lifelong commitment for him to be the designated spiritual body that channels that dance.”
The statement from M.I.A also reveals that, “There’s ten more of these countries coming and I haven’t chased where to go yet, so who knows where this project will take me,” adding that “The concept for this LP is ‘broader than a border’ and MATAHDATAH is the journal of MATANGI. Sometimes I move vertical and sometimes I move horizontal.”
M.I.A instagrammed the picture above with the caption, “Off to make #MATAHDATAH scroll 2”. Perhaps it will feature a video for Platforms — a demo of which appeared temporarily on M.I.A’s Soundcloud in May and has been teased in a short Instagram video — where M.I.A rails against oil companies, “tech dudes,” and UKIP.