Album: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

Global a Go-Go, Hellcat

On Global a Go-Go, Joe Strummer makes a concerted play for the cosmopolitan-cool constituency, with approving references to both the G7 Summit-busting international anarchists, and the border-transcending power of music itself. Where Super Furry Animals perceive pollution in radio waves, he senses a revolutionary weapon for change: "Buddy Rich in Burundi/Quadrophenia in Armenia/Big Youth booming in Djakarta/Nina Simone in Sierra Leone," he exults on the title-track, while his Mescaleros practise what he preaches with a feisty mix of guitar, violin, percussion, fizzing synth and "Russian choir" vocals. But though global in outlook, the album entails little more than a return to his west London roots for a track like "Bhindi Bhagee", a celebration of multi-culturalism in munchies and music alike, with Strummer rapping over lovely Pablo-style African guitar arpeggios from Martin Slattery. Continuing in much the same manner as on their 1999 debut Rock Art And The X-Ray Style, The Mescaleros forge their grooves from fragments of folk, hip-hop, blues and world music. It's a fresh, fairly sparkling musical journey until the concluding 17-minute jam on "Minstrel Boy", which serves as a warning of how close this kind of thing can come to busking.