Who ever thought ye olde children’s favourite ‘The Wheels On The Bus’ could be wrapped in a US military body bag and re-packaged as an anti-war anthem? You did? Well you’re a cleverer little screwball than I.
Those pesky, meddling, politically charged urban firebrands the Asian Dub Foundation do their best to provoke a furore of disapproval with 11 or so tracks of banging hard ragga and Bollywood orchestral scores. Like Chumbawamba, the Asian Dub Foundation pretty much stick to what they know without once ever veering from the script, but unlike their lump-handed white brothers, it’s a good thing, even if the gang’s particular brand of polemic is as crude and unsophisticated as the wamba’s. Where the band fails to disappoint though is in the music, which again proves to be a dense and multifarious brew of soaring sitars, gruelling dub basslines and jungle-inspired beats. And bearing in the mind the rather ham-fisted political content, the flows are pretty smooth too. The electronic fabric that lines new single ‘Flyover’ and ‘Who Runs The Place’ work well, and dub ballads like ‘Tommorow Begins Today’ and ambient scores like ‘Melody 7’ positively shine.
Full of eastern promise, that very occasionally delivers on it too.