Community Music

UNINTENTIONALLY OR not, there's been an awful lot of bollocks written about Asian Dub Foundation.

It ranges from the mildly patronising ("Isn't it great that they've formed a band") to the outright racist ("If it's so awful here, why don't they go back to their own country?").

With all the headlines they've been generating recently for the Free Saptal Ram Campaign, it's easy to forget that their primary role is making music. Aware that everything else they do stems from this, Community Music finds them, on occasions, trying a bit too hard.

Never mind kitchen-sinks, 'Officer XX' chucks in the microwave, dishwasher and Breville snack-toaster as well. I hate to use such a tired old clichi as "less is more", but there are times when the Londoners could really do with paring things down.

None of which alters the fact that along with Primal Scream's Xtrmntr, this is a record which shows Britrock up for the one-dimensional sham it is.

That's apparent from the off with 'Real Great Britain' packing the most potent of bhangramuffin punches. Lyrically, it's spot on too, with such Tony-baiting jibes as: "Blairful of Thatcher stuck on the 45/The suits have changed but the old ties survive/New Britannia cool, who are you trying to fool?/Behind your fashion-tashion I see nothing at all."

Tou - and may I say - chi.

Better still are 'Memory War' and 'Collective Mode', two songs which demonstrate that along with the bluster, there's a delicious pop sensibility at work.

Unlike other groups who are restricted by their influences, ADF are able to take the bits they've nicked and fashion them into something that's essentially their own. The genetic splicings are at times thrilling - 'Riddim I Like' introducing Afrika Bambaata to Django Reinhardt in an East End boozer, and 'Crash' whisking Happy Mondays off to Cairo on their hols.

Less successful are 'Colour Line' - all worthy sentiment and no tune - and 'Truth Hides' which does nothing of real substance with its 8 mins 20 secs.

Other than that, Community Music is one sexy divil of a record.