Having a penchant for many things groovy and Hindustani – like the fluff of Bollywood soundtracks – it’s a pleasure to listen to tunes with the purpose of delivering bouncy, driving Asian-style beats with relevant socio-political commentary. It is a relatively rare thing in the broad electronic music scene but the Asian Dub Foundation have and still are consistently creating such music and Time Freeze 1995/1997 The Best of is a great introduction to their oeuvre. This is the first ever compilation of prime Asian Dub Foundation tracks spanning from their twelve years of existence and represented are the biggest and ripest fruits of their past labours along with two recent new cuts.
This nicely titled release is packaged stylishly with a booklet containing brief liner notes, with heaps of photos and web-accessible exclusive content. The chosen collection of songs features many singles and collaborations, such as the hauntingly beautiful Thousand Mirrors with Sinead O’Connor. On this song and others, Asian Dub Foundation has also enlisted the production magic of Adrian Sherwood from On U Sound Studios to brilliant effect. The mood and the message shifts constantly but insistently melodic basslines carry the ears throughout the album – from frenetic breakbeats, bhangra, hip hop, dub and guitar action reminiscent of Bad Brains in parts. They also share with Bad Brains the intention to open peoples’ eyes to a multicultural reality but are more direct than their punk-tagged cousins ever were.
Asian Dub Foundation present different stories of social and political unbalance due to race, gender and circumstance, such as in Free Satpal Ram, which became part of the grassroots campaign in a judicial case involving race attacks and murder. Fortress Europe addresses the contemporary trend of viewing asylum seekers negatively as taken by immigration officialdom; it is indeed a topic that is relevant in all first-world societies. Along with their noble narratives, the instrumentation and electronic treatments on all tracks is enticing and it may well prompt a few newcomers to further explore past releases.
For the long-time fans, tacked onto the end of the compilation are two new but short recordings, in other words, not many surprises are to be had unless managing to procure the special bonus 15-track CD (of which I didn’t). This is still a solid overview of twelve years of output from a highly fascinating cluster of musicians and personalities who are seriously propelled by the big ‘n’ messy issues that affect many on our small planet. After several listens to Time Freeze, it’s clear the Asian Dub Foundation create music for both the head and feet!
