Generation Mixed

London's Asian Dub Foundation are not necessarily a "political band" - they're just socially aware

Musically, it could only happen in London, where sounds mix like spices in the bottom of a curry pot. Reggae dub sound systems reverberate across street blocks inhabited with West Indian immigrants. Lost rhymes from hip-hop ciphers illuminate the air outside tube stations. Jungle break beats cascade on revelers like wintertime rain, while other kids loiter around dingy East End spots blaring punk anthems. This is the England of the Asian Dub Foundation, a quintet of brown-skinned boys creating one of the most uniquely relevant musical entities in years.

As the group's name suggests, the members of Asian Dub Foundation - Aniruddha 'Dr Das' Das [bass], Deedar Zaman [vocals], Steve Chandra 'Chandrasonic' Savale [guitar], John Pandit [DJ], Sanjay 'Sun-J" Tailor [sequencers] - straddle the proverbial hyphen between England and the Indian Sub-Continent. They are all second generation kids from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh living in London, nurtured as much on old Indian classical and folk music from home as they were hip-hop, reggae and punk on the streets. This is a contingent so large in the UK that it's spawned its own magazine, '2nd Generation', and perhaps a true sign of musical achievement, it's own genre-specific tag from the British press: Asian Underground.

"The Asian Underground is only one part of the whole spectrum, a part that doesn't include us," insists Dr Das. Indeed, it is little more than a fraction of the whole. A term created around Talvin Singh's dance weeklies, the British press seized upon it to define these second generation Indian kids emerging from London's musical fringes. By classifying everything from Singh's Anokha vibe, Cornershop, indie dance outfits like State of Bengal and the Outcaste label, Fun^da^mental, and ADF as 'Asian Underground', what they really did was ghettoize it - locked up a beautifully diverse array of music into a nice, tidy and easily manipulative package.
"We dubbed the term," Chandra clarifies. "But they ghettoized it, yes." In fact, the groovy dance rhythms put out by Singh's Anohka sessions are about as far as you can get from the Asian Dub Foundation. Their latest album, 'Rafi's Revenge', is their third, and it defines the group's voice much like 'OK Computer' did for Radiohead. Bombastic drum breaks of 'Naxalite' are put on a collision course with junglist beats and Zaman's dancehall-inspired chatter on tunes like 'Buzzin'' and 'Black White'. The group's publicists like to call ADF an "East Indian band doing West Indian music", or even dub them an "Indian version of the Clash," but don't tell them that.

"The Clash, hmmmph," sniffs Chandra. "Groups like the Clash were just symbolists. It's all like this Sandinistas vibe, but it was really more about what they wore than what they were saying. More fashion than passion. We're not like that."
Chandra's comment hits the core of ADF. Within the music exists an added dimension to the group that transcends their rich, influenced sound: social consciousness. Beyond the tag of Asian Underground and the typical East-meets-West dichotomy that always seem to follow, perhaps the most indelible impression of their Asian backgrounds is this: the idea of giving back to your community and taking care of your societal young. Even the group's name sounds like a community organization.

Consider ADF's origins, Aniruddha Das and John Pandit met while volunteering at The Community Music House in Farringdon, just outside of London. The workshops were done to teach young musicians how to use and be resourceful with new music technology. "Rather than getting bagged down with having the latest gadgets," explains Das, "we emphasize more on composing music, saying something with the music, and performing."
One of their students was a 15-year-old Zaman, who is now their 19-year old lead singer. "We range from the teens to the early 30s," explains Das. "He was the catalyst for ADF, the voice we needed to take us out from being an anonymous sound system hiding behind the shadows." They soon added the rest of the members and transformed from a groove-oriented outfit into a full-fledged band. "That's our background, the sound system," continues Das. "It's normal to have ten-minute grooves and be very vague as to where you were going to next. I think we're starting to revert back to that, going back to long pieces again."

Asian Dub Foundation are full-fledged believers in the Bob Marley method of imparting knowledge: Hook them with the music and they will listen to the lyrics. Their music does indeed carry weight lyrically. Their interests in creating music is certainly one bond amongst the five members, but their mutal interests in affecting the society is an even greater glue. All the members continue to volunteer with different social and community organizations such as the London-based Asian Action group.
"When you get an opportunity, a platform, you have to use it," espouses Pandit. "We've linked up with community organizations, community struggles, family struggles, anti-racism struggles. That's the basis of ADF. That's where we come from and we try to integrate all those into what we do, make all the networks continue. When we do a song like 'Free Satpal Ram', we also bring the campaign on the road with us."
Satpal Ram is a man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for defending himself against a racist attack in a restaurant 12 years ago; ADF have adapted his cause. It is songs and campaigns like this that have given the group the 'political tag' tag, but it isn't that simple, says Chandra. "What do you call Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley or Jimmy Cliff? Would you call them political? You just say they made great songs and were socially aware."

While the group like to stress the musical aspect of their group, they also don't mind getting bogged down with the 'conscious' description. After all, it brings attention to their work. Still, after a lengthy discussion about music, Das casually hands over a postcard. "Can you put this address in your article?", he asks. "It's important." Indeed:

For more information on the Free Satpal Ram Campaign, please write c/o 101 Villa Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, B18 1NH, England.

By Joseph Patel