Manu Chao's 1st DVD ""Babylonia En Guagua"" Out January 2002

Paris Concert, Manu-Produced Footage, Road Movie & More

4-Dec-02

Manu Chao, whose cross-cultural, guerilla style music has received critical acclaim around the world, will release Babylonia En Guagua on January 28, 2003, his first concert DVD ever, featuring 25 songs from his September 4 & 5, 2001 concerts at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris. The elusive artist and his band are the subjects of a 52 minute ""behind the scenes"" road movie directed by Raphael Frydman, which is also included on the DVD, along with a l0 minute short Directed by Marc Boucherot and Nicolas Menet and a 26 minute film directed by Enzo. Manu Chao also makes his debut as a director on Babylonia En Guagua contributing a 26 minute film to the DVD. In a nod to Manu's multicultural and pan-hemispheric appeal, the DVD will be released around the world with English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish subtitles. The Paris concerts came at the end of a three year string of 120 concerts that covered three continents and found Manu and his group, the inspired Radio Bema Sound System, playing in front of more than a million fans. For fans in the U.S., where Manu Chao has played only three shows in the past 5 years, the DVD is a chance to be a part of the traveling party and ""theatre of the mind experience"" (Downbeat) that is a part of any Manu Chao performance. The music on Babylonia en Geauga ""reconnects Manuís vision to the roots-rock-rebel traditions of Bob Marley and the Clash"" and includes selections from both 1998's Clandestino and 2001's Proxima Estacion Esperanza acclaimed albums, interspersed with Manu Negara classics and the occasional cover. He flits from Spanish to English to Portuguese to French"" covering his biggest solo songs as Radio Bembaís crazy melange of sounds ""blurting trombones, wailing accordions, frantic guitars, manic day samples, and furious rumba catalane percussion"" work up a fierce but nuanced wall of sound."" Simply put, Babylonia en Geauga, Manu in concert, raw, rich, exciting, presented undiluted without studio fixes or overdubs, is one of the best party DVDís ever made! The DVD is a ticket to party with the artist that MTV Music Awards Latin America named ""Best Alternative Artist of the Year."" The companion piece to Babylonia en Guagua is the Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System live CD, released earlier this year, about which Time Out says, ""finds Chao and crew bounding between language and musical styles with a maniacal glee so infectious, itís nearly impossible to stay in your seat."" A French native of Spanish descent, Chao helped start the alter-Latina movement long before it had a name. He included African, Caribbean and North American styles, and played them with a punk attitude, first as a member of the Mano Negra collective, then on his own and with his band, Radio Bemba Sound System. At any moment, he can slip from reggae and ska to Afropop, salsa, punk and other styles, thrilling audiences around the world with his political activism and messages of tolerance. 

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