Mathangi Arulpragasam’s (aka M.I.A.) debut album turned out to be interesting. It blends in some fairly basic synth kit beats with stop n’ go rap lyrics.
Lyricaly it made me think Black Eyed Peas without the over-production.
A funky, multilingual old-school dance beat album with lilting rapping over it.
All in all, not bad. Check out some of the links to on the Wikipedia entry to get an idea of the sound.
On my recent trip to Japan (which I have yet to write about at any length) I picked up a few CDs. Among them are the set I’m currently giving my car stereo over to, Bastard Pop Terrorists vol 2 3 and 4.
I still don’t know quite what to make of these, weather they’re just cheap attempts to throw together a CD with cute cover art and sell a few copies or a go at real trance/house/techno.
The musical content is diverse and largely a mixed bag. Even in the car where I’m more prone to give a questionable track a listen I’ve found myself skipping some of them.
But some of the (largely Japanese language) tracks are good remixes or mediocre remixes of good song (Hare Hare Yukai by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto for example). On the whole they lay down a catchy beat and are listenable.
So I’m undecided as to the quality of the Bastard Pop Terrorists series as of yet. I’ll give it a “not bad on the whole, hell of a name” until I’ve made up my mind 
.