Mach 6

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Senegal-born MC Solaar, the million-selling French-language rapper, continues to channel hip-hop through his own vibrant cultural experience with Mach 6. Steeped in silky acoustic jazz texture, native African instrumentation, and elegant orchestral strings supplied by the Moscow Orchestra, the album offers a take on hip-hop that, next to the casual violence common to the US urban landscape, sounds not so much conscious as excessively polite. Mind you, Mach 6 knows how to party, and we're not just talking dinner-parties here. Take "Hijo De Africa", for instance: it might be rich with folksy acoustic strings and bare hand-claps, but tethered to the deep bass-drum pulse that powered Sean Paul's "Get Busy", it's clearly a track designed as much for the hips as for the head.

Meanwhile, there's excellent moments in the shape of "Guerilla" and "Au Pays De Gandhi", strident political tracts smoothed into shape by Solaar's florid mellifluous Gallic accent, and even a genuine crossover pop hit-in-waiting in the shape of "Today Is A Good Day"--a collaboration with rising star Davine. --Louis Pattison

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Customer reviews

review by: Pennine Dweller date: 2006-09-02 rating:
classy
Not so full on with insistent driving beats as one might come to expect of more typical hip hop and some tracks are not really danceable to be honest (not that that is necessarily a pre-requisite of the genre). Strikes me as thinking person's hip hop (even if I don't understand more than a couple of the words!). Often quiet, generally restrained and very acoustic in places. Extremely well crafted and artful

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review by: chtpotter date: 2004-05-04 rating:
Sauvez le monde
He's certainly saved me from the bore of listening to monotonous American 'hiphop/triphop/ragga'.....whatever they call it now.

This album, on a par or even better than his previous,'Cinquieme As', is a genuine masterpiece. Don't be fooled by other album rated '5-star' because the majority of artists can not even dream of reaching the same level as Claude 'MC Solaar' M'Barali in terms of musicality,production,lyrical mastery and, above all. He is not a jack of all trades, or varieties of music in this case, but a master.This album encompasses hip-hop,rap,reggae,classical,jazz,blues,indian and many,many more different influences but, more importantly, Solaar manages to pull them all off. Even his skits are very clever and appropriate.

The album starts off with the catchy and upbeat 'La vie est belle',with it's infectious beat and catchy chorus. As you are whizzed along a musical roller-coatser, you will also be wowed by the brilliantly produced 'T'Inquiete', the very clever and lyrically brilliant 'Guerilla', J'connais mon role','Sauvez le monde' and 'Bling Bling'. There are many other pleasant surprises I can assure you!

The only songs that I didn't quite 'feel' and seemed a bit too confused were 'Le pays du Gandhi' and 'Souvenir' but I am only writing this having heard the album for the first time!!!!!!!

Quite simply this - if you like MC Solaar, you will love this.......if you enjoy well-produced,melodical and symmetrical music...you will love this. MC Solaar at his very best...can he possibly better it? Don't bet against it!

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review by: date: 2003-12-10 rating:
Un Beat, Une Voix, Des Chordes
Solaar's back, and this time he means business. His last album, Cinqueme As was brilliant, but this time he's got to impress again, and has he done it?

Tracks like La Vie Est Belle are a bit overpowering, with Solaar chatting about war coming closer to him, which makes you think he was being sarcastic when he wrote the song name. Hijo De Africa has a great African sound, with it's earthy rythms. He tries to fit in as many African references as he can, which is quite cool.

T'inquete isn't as good as I thought it would be, it's too James Bond like to me. With his typical James Bond piano riffs and French horn. The lyrics are not as good as other tracks. Again, he uses the orchestra meanfully, but I still don't really like the vibe of it.

Guereia has this great horn section, and the lyrics are on point. Solaar makes a lot of war refrences and a lot of silly play on words, which do make you laugh out loud (something rap often doesn't do, so well done Claude MC).

Other favourites of mine include Jumelles, a song about him falling in love with a woman in the library, with it's great poetic lyrics, this has to be one of his best pieces of work in a long time. The lyrics are as good as Caroline. We find out she's got another man, and he throws his roses on the floor (what class?)

Jardin D'Eden is also great - Solaar rapping about a nicer place where lakes are clean and pretty women. The lyrics are again of high quality, Solaar must spend hours writing these lyrics.

One of my favourites so far has to be Au Pays De Ghandi, with it's western beats meets eastern instrumental. This is an excellent track about Solaar's trip in India. This is one of the more "hip-hop" tracks on his album, which is nice. It does remind me a bit of "Leve Toi Est Rap", from his last installment.

J'connais mon role is also amazing, he's gone back to his jazz roots here, rapping about his role, and making people stop clenching their fist and shaking hands. He also big ups the people helping to stop AIDS and people against land mines, which is quite cool to say the least. The beat and the double bass work very well here.

Cash Money is a funny song about modern women who want big bills not small change. Again, the ethnic beats work well here, and his lyrics are funny yet charming. He then says "I'm old skool and don't have any cash"... smashing.

Today's a good day has a great vibe. He's singing about going down to the job centre and asking to be a musician, while his mum's giving him hassle about his spending habbits and she's got no confidence in him making the top 50 (something he's done a lot). The whole arrangement is nice, good guitar work and the singing is phenominal.

Souviner is quite a serious song, about the time he was stopped by the police because he was driving a nice car. They thought it was stolen. It's a nicely told tale about the police and foregn relations in France.

Sauvez Le Monde is another orchestral track, with Solaar asking people to save this crazy world before it goes up in smoke. He's using the orchestra to it's full, as he creates nearly a film soundtrack in the middle. It's a good track, but not one of my favourites, I think it's a bit over the top.

Bling Bling is another cool track, which has a sort of West Indies sound to it, here; he talks about people who show off with jewels and reminds people it's not that easy to make it rich. He's also saying the lifestyle in music videos is not real, and people don't usually have that much bling bling. It's funny how we've got nearly the same issues in France as we do here....

Ca me hante is the last stop on the journey that is Mach 6 - and an excellent insight into the way immigrants came to France. He talks about being on a boat as cargo, getting off and going to his uncle's in Paris. The track is nearly 8 minutes of him telling us about life as an immigrant, and how things went. The music is excellent - with the orchestra playing pizacarto strings and the lyrics are perfect.

Altogether this is a pretty good album. If you like MC Solaar, you're going to like this. The only let downs are about 3 songs, but the album will probably grow on you, like it had to do for me. When I first listened it wasn't really doing much for me, but after 4 listens, you get hooked to the album.

The album also has a gateway to his secret site where you can watch "la vie est belle", which is quite a nice feature.

If you like Solaar, buy this, if you are a big fan, get the digipack....


review by: date: 2003-12-01 rating:
La Vie Est Belle
MC Solaar is one of France's most popular rappers, and for some his enemy, so there's no wonder that he's singing about La Vie Est Belle, but at the same time talking like he's under attack. His rap style has gone from fast rap "Qui Seme Le Vent..." to slower rap with more of a story "La Vie Est Belle, Sauver le monde, Today is a good day". Before I get into the review, I feel that you should see the tracklisting for all 3 disks:

Disk 1
1. Introspection
2. La vie est belle
3. Hijo de Africa
4. T'inquiète (Intro)
5. T'inquiète
6. Guérilla
7. Jumelles
8. Jardin d'Eden
9. Au pays de Gandhi
10. Je connais mon rôle
11. Cash money
12. Today is a good day
13. Souvenir
14. Sauver le monde
15. Bling bling
16. Ca me hante

Disk 2
1. La vie est belle (Symphonic Version)
2. A Selection of Instrumentals
3. The Internet Version Of "la vie est belle" (Rap against MP3)

Disk 3 (DVD)
1. "la vie est belle" music video
2. MC Solaar In Moscow
3. Photo Gallery

The album starts with La Vie Est Belle, which is a sort of song about war and how life can be great at times. Another great track off this album is Hijo de Africa, a song about the suffering of African people and AIDS. I also couldn't help but enjoy the ethnic beats of Au pays de Gandhi; the use of western hip hop rules with Indian instruments, excellent.

Other gems here include Cash Money, with it's soft guitar feel, and excellent lyrics, reminds me of RMI off Cinqueme As, which was also great. He raps about modern girls who just want cash. I also loved Today is a good day; and no it has nothing to do with Ice-T's version, it's a sort of funky tune with great backing, you just have to hear it to believe it's a hip hop tune.

The album is nicely rounded off with Bling Bling, which is a sort of diss on J-Lo, but in an MC Solaar sort of style, so he's not being offensive, but he's letting his feelings known about people wanting jewels and the high life, and that's it's not as easy as it's made out to be. The beat is very much like "Leve Toi Est Rap".

CD2 is sort of a La Vie Est Belle CD Single, it's got a Symphonic Remix, and a few instrumentals from the album, but the real gem here is MC Solaar's diss of MP3 and piracy. He's spits out every p2p program name and makes a great record. This is probably one of his best pieces of work to date...

The DVD is a nice bonus, which is well worth getting in itself. There are NO MC Solaar DVDs available, so this is really nice (as I am a huge fan of his). The concert is great, and the video for La Vie Est Belle is very expressive. The gallery is a good extra too.

This album is relitively good, I just can't get into it yet. I know it's only a day old, but hearing this new album I just can't help but think MC Solaar hasn't moved on much since Cinqueme As. The music is very positive, which is good, but there's no colaborations with Soon E MC, Bambi Cruz, or even 9Respect, which is a shame. I started to really like Cinqueme As's sound, and then he changes it -- it's going to take time to settle in. This album is one of those that will probably grow on you. I was very fortunate to have this sent to me from France, but if you can afford the UK pricetag, and you're a big MC Solaar fan, get this, otherwise, get it from France. Good, but could have been better.

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