World music is a broad church encompassing many styles and sounds, but as all-encompassing and democratic as it is, French-born Latin artist Manu Chao can safely be described as one of its superstars. Fusing Latin, rock and reggae and singing songs in French, Spanish, English, and Arabic to name but a few, Manu has been described as the 21st century Bob Marley and has even supported Rage Against The Machine on tour.

21 songs in under an hour hints at the ambition contained within, and with such a wide range of influences to take inspiration from it's no surprise that there are a vast range of sounds all corralled loosely into Latin reggae rock. What is surprising is that many tracks share the same backing track, a trick hard to notice over the shifts from acoustic to electric, slow to fast that can take place within songs as well as between. A leftist political performer inspired by The Clash, the late Joe Strummer reciprocated the appreciation and the punk spirit can be heard throughout, smoothed and shaped by the lazy Latin waves and reggae beats. Some tracks verge on the half-finished in their DIY approach, never going anywhere before the next track takes over, but as a whole La Radiolina (the small radio in Italian) works wonderfully in creating a unique sound and ambience.