Asian Dub Foundation - Community Music (FFRR)

Releasedate: Mon 20.March 2000

It was that great philosopher John Lydon who first noted that "anger is an energy" back in the mid-Eighties. And that was they key weapon that Asian Dub Foundation deployed when they first punched their way into the public consciousness in 1998 with their second album, "Rafi's Revenge". Blessed with the backing of the most fearsome collage od sound since Public Enemy, rapper Master D attacked injustices with such ferocity that ADF's then-unique fusion of traditional Asian sounds with hip-hop, drum'n'bass, dub and punk crossed over enough for the album to make the Mercury Music Prize shortlist.

The intervening two years have seen ADF gain a reputation as the best live band in the country, the Asian underground coming of age and their mates Primal Scream putting anger back on the musical map. So where does a band go from there? Cash in by rehashing the previous album, or forge forward?

The four and a half stars atop this review have probably destroyed any suspense and given the answer away: this is a Neil Armstrong-esque giant leap forward. Stick the album on, however, and that's not immediately obvious, because the opening two tracks, single "Real Great Britain" and "Memory War", sound as though they could have come straight from "Rafi's Revenge".

From then on in, "Community Music" is a far more subtle beast, as ADF take their foot off the pedal marked "in your face" and find some grooves that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Massive Attack's classic "Blue Lines". Yes, that good.

The fusion of East meets West (Country) is most evident on "Taa Deem" which starts of like the Bristolians' "Lately", before it throws some massive beats behind a rapid-fire Urdu rap, sucking you in to a compellingly hypnotic claustrophobia.

Meanwhile, "Truth Hides" builds from a pulsing bassline and sounds like the darker, moodier, broodier cousin of "Safe From Harm", eschewing the paranoia of "Safe..." for a diatribe against revisionist historians, as it pays tribute to "People written out of history/Black leaders and inventors whose names reamain a mystery/Great women on ripped-out pages/Obliterated wisdom, covered-up faces".

Oh yes, almost forgot, they are still angry (and that's no bad thing. It'd be terrible if their achievements thus far were to make them smug and complacent). But their anger is now more sharply focused, less dissipated by the previous aggression of the music. And now they're also pinpointing solutions, as well as problems.

So we get the old-style finger-pointing "Officer XX" - a broadside aimed squarely at the police and British Justice in general ("When it comee to they guilty him a man of Straw") - sitting alongside the likes of "Collective Mode" ("Can't do it alone/You need to get into the collective mode") and the title track, both of which preach strength through solidarity.

If you've played "Exterminator" to death and you want to buy the best British album of the year, look no further. File under modern classic.

Phil Mongredien, Melody Maker