Asian Dub Foundation are a British electronica band, that plays a mix of breakbeat, dub, dancehall and ragga, also using rock instruments, acknowledging a punk influence.

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Biography

The band formed in 1993 as an outgrowth of the documentary Identical Beat, a film shot at London's Farringdon Community Music House, the site of a series of summer workshops designed to teach Asian children the essentials of music technology. In charge of the workshops were tutor Aniruddha Das and youth worker John Pandit, also a noted DJ; with one of their students, a 14-year-old Bengali rapper named Deeder Zaman, they soon formed a sound system which they called the Asian Dub Foundation.

The Asian Dub Foundation is better described as a group that arose from a community rap organization. The different forms of music include toasting, dub, funky guitars and many other African instrumentals. One of their most influential tracks is named Strong Culture which gives the listener an idea of the Asian culture. ^[1] "Their distinctive sound is a combination of hard ragga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub basslines, searing sitar- inspired guitars and 'traditional' sounds gleaned from their parents' record collections, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics". ^[2]

After each adopted an alias — bassist/tabla player Das became Dr. Das, Pandit became Pandit G, and Zaman became Master D — they gradually evolved into a working band with the 1994 addition of former Higher Intelligence Agency and Atom Spies guitarist Steve Chandra Savale, an innovative performer known for tuning his strings to one note (like a sitar), turning up the distortion unit and playing his instrument with a knife, earning him the nickname "Chandrasonic." Emerging in the midst of considerable anti-Asian violence throughout Britain, the Foundation's early demos landed them a contract with Nation Records, and they recorded their debut EP Conscious in 1994. Channeling influences ranging from punk to ambient music to Bengali folk songs, Asian Dub Foundation quickly gained a strong fanbase not only among clubgoers but also among the anti-fascist movement, who applauded the group's vocal stand against racism.

Sanjay Gulabhai Tailor, Aka Sun-J, joined the band as live midi/programmer and DJ soon after. This completed the full live line up of the band. After earning a reputation as formidable live performers, the band — which now included dancer Bubble-E — won widespread acclaim for the 1995 single "Rebel Warrior". Their second album Rafi's Revenge was nominated for a Mercury Prize combining a unique combination of punk energy with a jungle/reggae core. The single, 'Naxalite' was an ode to the militant Naxalite movement in India. Tours to the United States with the Beastie Boys and Japan followed to wide acclaim. Their following album, Community Music, developed their sound further and received a coveted 10/10 review in NME . ^[3]

Deeder Zaman left the band after playing his last concert on New Year's Eve 2000, and the band expanded to include Pritphal Rajput (dhol, tabla), Rocky Singh (drums), MC Spex (vocals) and Akhtarvator (vocals), the latter recruited from the band's ongoing education project ADFED. The new line-up played a few one off gigs mostly at festivals over the summer of 2000 with their first full tour taking place in Brazil in 2001 where they visited various music projects especially "Afro-Reggae" in Rio, who are the subject of the recent film "Favela Rising".

In 2002, Pandit G was awarded the MBE for "services to the music industry" in relation to his work with Community Music. He declined the award, however, stating: ^[4]

“	Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.	”

The band pursued other avenues performing a live rescore to the film La Haine in 2001, and continued performing it round the world for the next five years. They developed this approach in 2004 with the film The Battle of Algiers , first performing the piece at the Brighton dome on the same day that photographs of torture in Abu Ghraib were released.

In 2003 they released Enemy of the Enemy which became their best selling album and contained the track "Fortress Europe," a stinging attack on European immigration policy along with "1000 Mirrors" a collaboration with Sinéad O'Connor about a woman serving life for killing an abusive husband. In 2003 they played their biggest gig in front of 100,000 people at Larzac in France at a celebration of José Bové, a radical campaigning farmer. For 2005's Tank they were joined by On-U Sound collaborator Ghetto Priest on vocals. Bassist Dr. Das announced his intention to retire in May 2006 to resume teaching and produce his own music. He was replaced by Martin Savale, aka Babu Stormz, who also plays bass with British-Asian electro/grunge/hip-hop band Swami.

In September 2006, the dub/punk opera "Gaddafi: A Living Myth", with music by Asian Dub Foundation, opened at the London Coliseum. In Spring 2007 Asian Dub Foundation announced the release of a best of compilation Timefreeze 1995-2007 which includes a bonus disc of rare remixes and live tracks, featuring Chuck D, the lead rapper of American hip hop group, Public Enemy. The album also features a new track recorded with former vocalist Deeder Zaman. In May 2007 Asian Dub Foundation performed a radio session and interview on the Bobby and Nihal show on BBC Radio 1 where they performed three new tracks: "Climb On", "Superpower" and "S.O.C.A.". In June 2007 they were the only Western act to perform at the Festival of Gnawa music in Essaouira, Morocco playing to a crowd of 60,000 people and collaborating with traditional Gnawa musicians.

Between 2004 and 2007 when Aktarv8r was not a member of the group he played live on stage with the London band Oojami who perform Middle Eastern belly dance bellydance music. On the album "Boom Shinga Ling" released late in 2006, Aktarv8r plays on a couple of songs and is credited on the album under his own name Aktar Ahmed. In August 2007 Asian Dub Foundation started playing with two new vocalists, Al Rumjen (previously with King Prawn) and Aktarv8r returned after MC Spex was asked to leave the band. In November and December 2007 Asian Dub Foundation recorded a new album, Punkara, that was released in spring 2008.

Music

The 1995 song, Rebel Warrior, was inspired by the 1920s poem, "Bidrohi" by Bengali poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, an advocate for Indian independence. The song discusses the racial violence and inequality that the group state still plagues their British communities. Asian Dub Foundation have used their music in conjunction with education and social work for youth in the East End of London, as well as other British anti-racism campaigns. ^[5]

Like other groups in their genre such as Hustlers HC and Fun-Da-Mental, Asian Dub Foundation fuse South Asian instrumentation and lyrics with the dominantly conceived black music genre of rap. Their music is able to signify a disruption in the racial/ethnic boundaries of hip hop. In their song, "Strong Culture", they assert their authenticity as legitimate Asian hip hop artists, contrary to other popular claims. The line from the song, "I'm not a Black man / This time it's an Asian." likens back to when Asians were considered "Black" by some in the United Kingdom (UK) and often were part of that musical scene as Asian music had not fully emerged yet. Their lyrics call for radical political harmony and they use their music as an organizing tool for cultural politics, endorsing righteousness, social change, and an end to what they perceive as oppression in the UK. They also pursue the issue of the politicization of the category "Asian," asserting the legitimacy and authenticity of having an Asian identity in the hip hop world. They redefine the "Asian" category by reconnecting it with an anti-colonial history, as well a current, existing anti-racist struggle.

They challenge the argument that Asians are passive onlookers in popular culture who are hardly involved in the music industry. Their music functions to bridge the black influence with their own Asian style, using such lyrics as "I grab the mic to commence with the mic check. Supply rhymes, man you never heard yet, you've never thought an Asian could do this." Reckoning a traditional hip-hop MC style with their own Asian influence and simultaneously mixing in various other musical styles, thus disbanding the polarization of the racial terms and addressing the "ongoing racialised violence and inequality evident in everyday experience in their neighbourhood".

Discography

Albums

Asian Dub Foundation

• Facts and Fictions (1995)
• R.A.F.I. (1997) (original only released in France)
• Rafi's Revenge (1998) UK #20
• Conscious Party (1998) (original only released in France)
• Community Music (2000) UK #20
• Frontline 1993-1997: rarities and remixes (2001)
• Enemy of the Enemy (2003) UK #81
• Live: Keep Bangin' on the Walls (CD) (2003)
• Tank (2005)
• Time Freeze 1995/2007: The Best Of (CD) (2007)
• Punkara (CD) (2008)

Dr. Das

• Emergency Basslines (2006)
• Keep The Grime On (2007)

Deeder Zaman

• Minority Large (2008) (only released in Japan)

Ghetto Priest

• Vulture Culture
• Beyond Flesh

Singles

• 1997 "Naxalite" UK #112
• 1998 "Free Satpal Ram" UK #56
• 1998 "Buzzin'" UK #31
• 1998 "Black White" UK #52
• 2000 "Real Great Britain" UK #41
• 2000 "New Way, New Life" UK #49
• 2003 "Fortress Europe" UK #57
• 2003 "1000 Mirrors" (feat. Sinéad O'Connor) UK #81

DVDs

• Asian Dub Foundation live: Asian Dub Foundation live (DVD) (2003)

Others

Asian Dub Foundation's music has been featured in several video game titles; "Flyover" in Burnout Revenge, "Rise To The Challenge" in FIFA Football 2004 and Test Drive Unlimited, "Fortress Europe" in Need for Speed: Underground and "Burning Fence" in Need for Speed: Undercover.

The song "Rebel Warrior" is featured in a film about social movement resistance to capitalism and imperialism, called The Fourth World War. The song plays during a scene about the 1996-1997 general strike in South Korea. They also have a part in the soundtrack for the movie "Vexille".

References

1. Dis-orienting Rhythms: Politics of the New Asian Dance Music
2. Asian Dub Foundation
3. NME Reviews: Community Music
4. NME News: Pandit G Turns Down MBE
5. Culture Move: On Asian Dub Foundation