M.I.A. borrows from Captcha to tell story

M.I.A. continues to attract our attention with her music videos by unveiling the accompanying footage to her new single, A Story To Be Told. Taken from the album /\/\/\Y/\, the track nods toward Bhangra, the Indian sub-continent,  and takes a matter of seconds to be recognised as the work of Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam.

The new video follows on from the controversial narrative short for the track Born Free, which saw ginger haired Americans hunted down, captured and then forced to run across a mine field while soldiers fired live rounds at them. An ironic side-swipe at US foreign policy and global prejudices it caused something of a stir, not least because it depicts the assassination of a minor at point blank range.

The new video for A Story… is a little easier to stomach and, thanks to the lack of brain matter and dismembered bodies, should be coming to a music channel near you. Inspired by Captcha, the irritating yet functional anti-spam web tool, it might be based on modern technology but we like to think of it as a relatively organic, wholly hallucinatory experience. Check it, enjoy it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8vRXkaGric


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