Four albums into M.I.A.'s career, it's arguable that success may have been the worst thing to happen to her music. After "Paper Planes"' breakthrough, Maya Arulpragasam seemed determined to appear ever more rebellious in the face of increasing mainstream acceptance; her one-finger salute during the Super Bowl half-time show while performing with Madonna and Nicki Minaj was a perfect example. That attitude trickled down to her music: /\/\/\Y/\'s abrasive electronics, which reflected her mistrust of the information age, were equal parts tedious and thrilling. Matangi -- named after an emerald-green Tantric goddess as well as a riff on M.I.A.'s birth name, Mathangi -- has weaknesses similar to /\/\/\Y/\'s: many songs are so claustrophobic that they feel twice as long as they actually are, and her wordplay hovers somewhere between the club and the nursery. Her litany of countries on the title track feels alternately meaningful and parodic, while "aTENTion"'s reliance on words with "tent" in them works better as a rhythmic device highlighting the song's blippy electro-pop than a key to any deeper significance. Top-loading the album with some of its most aggressive tracks, M.I.A. makes listeners wait for her still formidable skills with hooks and melodies. She displays them most stunningly on "Bad Girls," a sinewy, menacing track whose origins date back to 2007 sessions with Danja. Throughout Matangi, Arulpragasam proves she's as adept as ever at blending different sounds and cultures into a mix that is unmistakably hers, alluding to Shampoo's bratty Brit-pop single "Trouble" at one moment and proclaiming herself the female Slick Rick at another. Indeed, the moments inspired by rap and R&B are among the highlights, such as her karmic questioning of Drake's ubiquitous motto on "YALA" or the sultry, surprisingly straightforward ballad "Know It Ain't Right." "Exodus," a collaboration with the Weeknd, finds a mostly successful middle ground between her outbursts and his chilly R&B dirges (although the closing reprise "Sexodus" probably wasn't necessary). While she remains an ambitious synthesist, it often feels like M.I.A. is having less fun as time goes on, and moments like the fizzy, hypnotic "Lights" or "Boom Skit," which harks back to Arular's brazen exuberance, are welcome respites from her mission to be the edgiest. In its mix of confrontational moments and moves toward the rap/R&B center, Matangi is a frustrating portrait of an artist challenging herself on some levels and retreating on others.© Heather Phares /TiVo

With their album "Outcast", Matangi makes its case for artistic freedom and for musical expressiveness that stems from repression. The combination of these three compositions within this programme ensures that "silent" resistance is given its voice. Composers are not always free to compose what they want. This album is an ode to the musical "outcast": three Soviet-Russian composers who wrote music that went dangerously against the taste of the regime under which they lived. Described as "avant-garde" or "western", they stuck their necks out for their work, risking their careers or - in the case of Dmitri Shostakovich under Stalin - even their personal freedom. Shostakovich always had a packed suitcase ready for the eventuality of his arrest by the KGB. Alfred Schnittke was also severely thwarted by his own government. His work was viewed with suspicion and performances were regularly prevented. In addition to his musical oeuvre, the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov is known for his political opposition to the rulers of the former Soviet Union and present-day Russia. The Matangi Quartet is an ardent advocate of Silvestrov's music and has developed a special personal and musical bond with him. In 2017 he was Artist in Residence of Matangi's own (Un)heard Music Festival. © Matangi Quartet

Four albums into M.I.A.'s career, it's arguable that success may have been the worst thing to happen to her music. After "Paper Planes"' breakthrough, Maya Arulpragasam seemed determined to appear ever more rebellious in the face of increasing mainstream acceptance; her one-finger salute during the Super Bowl half-time show while performing with Madonna and Nicki Minaj was a perfect example. That attitude trickled down to her music: /\/\/\Y/\'s abrasive electronics, which reflected her mistrust of the information age, were equal parts tedious and thrilling. Matangi -- named after an emerald-green Tantric goddess as well as a riff on M.I.A.'s birth name, Mathangi -- has weaknesses similar to /\/\/\Y/\'s: many songs are so claustrophobic that they feel twice as long as they actually are, and her wordplay hovers somewhere between the club and the nursery. Her litany of countries on the title track feels alternately meaningful and parodic, while "aTENTion"'s reliance on words with "tent" in them works better as a rhythmic device highlighting the song's blippy electro-pop than a key to any deeper significance. Top-loading the album with some of its most aggressive tracks, M.I.A. makes listeners wait for her still formidable skills with hooks and melodies. She displays them most stunningly on "Bad Girls," a sinewy, menacing track whose origins date back to 2007 sessions with Danja. Throughout Matangi, Arulpragasam proves she's as adept as ever at blending different sounds and cultures into a mix that is unmistakably hers, alluding to Shampoo's bratty Brit-pop single "Trouble" at one moment and proclaiming herself the female Slick Rick at another. Indeed, the moments inspired by rap and R&B are among the highlights, such as her karmic questioning of Drake's ubiquitous motto on "YALA" or the sultry, surprisingly straightforward ballad "Know It Ain't Right." "Exodus," a collaboration with the Weeknd, finds a mostly successful middle ground between her outbursts and his chilly R&B dirges (although the closing reprise "Sexodus" probably wasn't necessary). While she remains an ambitious synthesist, it often feels like M.I.A. is having less fun as time goes on, and moments like the fizzy, hypnotic "Lights" or "Boom Skit," which harks back to Arular's brazen exuberance, are welcome respites from her mission to be the edgiest. In its mix of confrontational moments and moves toward the rap/R&B center, Matangi is a frustrating portrait of an artist challenging herself on some levels and retreating on others.© Heather Phares /TiVo

The Matangi Quartet's readings of Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 1 and String Quintet No. 1 have many things going for them, but one big thing going against them. The Dutch group has the speed and ensemble to keep up with the quintet's lightning-fast Allegro di molto and Allegro vivace, and the heart and soul to dig down into the quartet's Canzonetta and Andante espressivo. Even more importantly, the Matangi has the polish and refinement to articulate the works' forms and elucidate their textures. But they lack one crucial quality to make Mendelssohn's music come alive: joie de vivre. Here, Mendelssohn more often than not sounds tired, as if the energy of keeping everything moving was too much for him, and he wanted nothing more than to take a nap. Given the composer's reputation for propulsive rhythms and driving tempos, this interpretation could hardly be more wrongheaded. Recorded in cool, clear, but a bit too clean sound, this disc is interesting enough as long as it's playing, but fades rapidly in the memory once it's ended. © TiVo

The Matangi Quartet's 2005 release Scandinavia has one slight problem: while two of the composers, Edvard Grieg and David Monrad Johansen, were Norwegian, the third, Julius Röntgen, was Dutch! His presence is explained by his close friendship with Grieg, and the Matangi Quartet's decision to include his attractive two-movement Quartettino in A minor as filler is barely justifiable through that connection. Grieg's String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27, and Johansen's String Quartet, Op. 35, both deserve their place here, not only due to their creators' nationality but because they are solid examples of quartet writing outside the German tradition, and demonstrate the Norwegian proclivity to incorporate folk-inspired melodies in looser, more sectionalized developments than are found in Classical, motivically integrated models. But to represent Scandinavia more fairly, the ensemble might have considered a wider-ranging program of works by other Nordic composers -- why not select from the quartets by Sibelius, Nielsen, Gade, Kuhlau, Stenhammar, Sallinen, Rautavaara, among others, to offer a more truly representative program? Beyond that issue, the Matangi Quartet plays with great energy and feeling, though with a somewhat glossy sound that may be a result of overly resonant acoustics; but on the whole, this young group is in fine form on this music, and the reproduction is pleasant. © TiVo