WOMAD

Asian Dub Foundation

From United Kingdom

For the best part of 15 years now, Asian Dub Foundation have set agendas both musical and political. Distilling the agitated, rebel spirit of The Clash and Public Enemy and applying it to both the British-Asian experience and world politics, the band’s history is studded with notable landmarks – being in the forefront of the campaign to release Satpal Ram, touring with iconic groups like Primal Scream and the Beastie Boys, and releasing a string of gripping records from 1996’s Facts And Fiction onwards. Their most recent album, 2005’s Tank, marked a slight redefinition of musical purpose, adding a more electronic edge as well as some reggae flavour courtesy of On-U Sound’s Ghetto Priest. But the strength of their convictions, on tracks like Oil and Who Runs The Place, remained focused and undiminished. Most recently, the band has written and produced a modern-day opera based on the life of Colonel Gaddafi, as well as disappearing into the studio with Public Enemy mainman Chuck D to revisit anthems like Fight The Power. Don’t expect Asian Dub Foundation’s fire to be quelled any time soon.