Koch Records
2004
Un
About This Album
Though its clickable stream isn't as satisfying as the manual tune of a shortwave, Internet radio is still an effective international transmitter for localized sounds and ideas. The crew of a supertanker might joyfully discover a stream for New York hip-hop powerhouse Hot 97, for example, and blast Jay-Z into the inky Indian Ocean night. Conversely, the Internet grants a profound reach to the rants of the average soapbox idealist, whose words might burst with sudden and unlikely force from tinny desktop speakers half a world away. These bitstream cultural transfers -- both the wanted and the unwanted -- are the impetus for the grumbling lovely global village of Chumbawamba's UN. Its rousing punk past put on a shelf, the veteran collective of outsider Brits has crafted a set from international bits of found sound and World Wide Web crosstalk both extreme and goofy. There's the usual vocal harmony keen, and a bed of acoustic guitars and subtle electronic programming holds the whole thing together. "Just Desserts" begins with a scratchy prayer group recording, before winding into an accordion-fueled support platform for Global Pastry Uprising. Is that Billy Bob Thornton telling the anecdote at "Everything You Know Is Wrong"'s start? Unclear, but the cut's poppy acoustic bop cloaks its recitation of some of the most significant conspiracies, controversies, and violent events of the recent era, not to mention Chumba's position that stuffed-shirt agendas were behind them all.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,7 and 12)

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