Find a Song
Find an Artist
Pandora Blog
Pandora Video Series
About the Music Genome Project
Share This Album With a Friend
Tell a Friend
Find a Shared Station
Find Other Listeners
sign in
Help
Mobile
Share
About the Music
Your Profile
Labels
2000
Buy From iTunes
Buy CD From Amazon
Buy From Amazon MP3
People Listening to
This Artist
more
Asian Dub Foundation
Community Music
About This Album
Anarchist Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." This sentiment lies at the core of Community Music. At the intersection of dub, punk, funk, reggae, dancehall, Bollywood, and political polemic, you'll find Asian Dub Foundation. And you most certainly can dance to it. Community Music is thick with speaking "Truth to Power", while ADF storms the Bastille with an awe-inspiring musical ferocity and their crystalline political vision. The first half of Community Music is fierce and unrelenting in its musical influences, construction, and politics. From the thunderous opening cut, "Real Great Britain," we are left in no uncertain terms with where the politics of ADF lie or how passionately they hold them. Sharp observations on the current state of capitalism, politics, and race in Britain form the focal point of the CD. The blistering exposé of police incompetence on "Officer XX" refers to the botched Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry, set to a simple guitar and drum pattern. The stirring dub/electronic account of how second-generation immigrants to Britain have emerged both influenced and, in turn, influencing Cool Britannia on "New Way, New Life" make it one of their strongest songs to date.
On the opposite side of the same coin, "Memory War" illustrates that the immigrant communities are not a new form of British citizenry, and their contributions must be included in the official histories of the island. The second half slows the pace gradually, stretching the musical genres further and encouraging dancing. "Crash" is a didactic dub reggae dance groove critique of global capitalism which blazes out in a frenzy of jungle drums and punk guitar. As an ode to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -- a seminal figure in the emergence of "Eastern" music to Western ears and one given a much-deserved shout-out by ADF (the piece "Taa Deem" has appeared in a slightly different version on Star Rise: a remix collection of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's material by a who's who of contemporary British Asian musicians). The shuffling dance grooves and rap of "Rebel Warrior" call to mind the Stereo MC's. A further illustration of their politics, if needed, is provided by Assata Shakur, who is invited to give a personal account of her revolutionary beliefs that to "struggle because committed to life" is a necessary objective. Community Music ends with an expansive electronic dub coda. As "England's new voice," calling for intellectual self-defence and self- awareness, ADF represents the potential future. Community Music should be in every thinking person's collection, directly between the Clash and Public Enemy. [Labels released the album in the E.U., with different artwork but without any bonus material.] ~ Chris Grimshaw, All Music Guide
Continued…
Shortened View
Track List
(try tracks 1,4,9,11,13 and 14)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Similar Albums
Head
by
Psychic Trance Fur
Bone Peeler
by
Wumpscut
Vulnerable
by
Tricky
Something For Rockets
by
Something For Rockets
Radical Connector
by
Mouse On Mars
Leave a Comment about this album
/500
what is this?