A review of "Conscious Party"

by Saurav Dutt

ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION: CONSCIOUS PARTY (1998) (Virgin France)

For anybody unfortunate enough not to have heard or seen ADF play live, this French import is a must have. The band are captured live at the London Astoria in January 1998, before Rafi's Revenge was even released, and captures one of their most energetic and powerful live performances ever.

Playing at festivals, can dull the music of ADF somewhat -but get them in a sweat drenched "rock" gig-and then you can see the awesome power of the live performance in its full glory.

Opening with "Assassin", the tone for the rest of the gig is clearly apparent -sound quality is superb and the energy and power of the songs are fully shown for what they are worth. If you thought Rafi's Revenge was a mind smashing experiece -you have yet to feel ADF's amazing abilty to play live and they play like their lives depended on it.

The drum programming is the star of the show, Chandrasonic lays down his guitar tracks with relentless fury, Das keeps the tracks running with his unflappable dub bass lines, and the most gratifying surprise is Deeders voice -set free to chatter and bark away like it should be heard, away from the unintimate surroundings of the studio -this is as raw and powerful as you get.

As "Black White" and "Naxalite" are flawlessly executed, you can hear the crowd build up into a frenzy, and "Taa Deem" is excellent. The version of "Dub Mentality" is achingly good-bringing out the song in a fashion that the studio version could not even touch. As "Buzzin'" is given a face-lift, you realise just how good ADF really are, and to state that they are one of the best live bands going, would not be an overstatement. As jungle legend, Navigator joins the band for a special version of "Charge" -the already whipped up crowd, just add to the surging energy of the show -and the finale -a breathtaking version of "Free Satpal Ram", is in my opinion, THE best version of the song I have heard -the power of the track is there for all to see -all the more poignant because the gig occured on Satpal Ram's birthday-January 25th.

With extra bonus tracks, namely "Digital Underclass", "Culture Move" and some sound system re-mixes -you have the definitive ADF album. How many times have you seen them live, and wished for more? wished you could capture all the buzz, energy and power of the gig again? Well, it's all captured here live at one of their best performances at the Astoria. The CD is very difficult to get in shops, unloess you're in France that is, you can order it on the net. Although, on the ADF website they have samples of the album to play, the mono sound inhibits the album. You need the original, to feel the power. An unbeatable CD.

Saurav Dutt