"On the first check a record for ingratiating atmosphere from the side room, already on the second listen a gloomy work. Built from minimal Latin and roots loops, an acoustic guitar and the voice of Manu Chao, who is known to some as the singer of the Franco-Hispanic agitpop band Mano Negrao Agitpop band Mano Negra

On his hard drive, Miguel Matamoros, Bob Marley and Subcomandante Marcos meet for a bag of summer grass. But the mood turns, because their heads are heavy in the face of the misery of their peoples. @Normal: Manu Chao is gallant, singing about the expelled and exploited as a beautiful woman he wants to ask to dance. For those who don't know Spanish, here are the first lines from the title track: »I go alone with my pain / Alone goes my punishment / Running is my destiny / To deceive the law / Lost in the heart / Of the great city of Babylon / They call me Clandestino / Because I have no papers'. Africano clandestino / Marijuana ilegal' is the chorus, and to a mix of Mexican balada and Cuban son squawks the siren sound of one of those of those toys that illegal African immigrants hawk on Spanish and French beaches. In general, Chao scatters the samples under his riddims like scraps of rebellious flyers: from Gibraltar to Rio, and when it comes to lost love, sometimes from his answering machine"