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Rating: Southall.
The city-neighborhood of almost one hundred thousand Indo-Pakistanis west of London sprang up like a mushroom near the Heathrow international airport. The neighborhood's rapid growth took place between the 1950s and 1960s, when immigrants from Punjab, a region in the north of the Indian subcontinent, mostly flowed in.
In 1977 Bhangra, the rural music of India, had transferred to Great Britain as more immigrants settled, initially blending with rock-reggae and later with black and hip-hop. ADF was born in 1993 at the London youth community center "Community Music," when bassist Dr. Das, 17-year-old rapper Deeder Zaman, and activist composer Dj Pandit G decided to form a sound system to play anti-racist concerts. Later, guitarist Chandrasonic and turntablist Sun J completed the original line-up.
After "Facts and Fictions" and "Rafi's Revenge," where you hear a band blending rock-electronica and dub, the latest "Community Music" seems to have reached the long sought-after balance. This album offers us a listen steeped from the first "Real Great Britain", which merges a jungle beat with a wild rap, with original and classic Bhangra melodies. Already in the second track, "Memory War", we encounter a dub-electro-clash sung against the political system: "Who control the past control the present, and who control the present control the future…”, surely a piece remembered for creating an atmosphere of anti-racial anger, which continues with "Officer XX" and its electro-dub.
But it is the Bhangra melodies, and a joyful riff, that emerge like a spring breeze in "New Way, New Life", with a beautiful video shot in the Pakistani market that anticipates the listening of a real mix of dub sounds lasting 4:27 and entirely instrumental, "Riddim I Like". Without any video but with a real masterful rap that takes your breath away, sung in English and Arabic, with an appropriately balanced soundscape, is the time to listen to "Collective Mode", a blend of reggae-dub-electro-clash and rap flows as the best and most melodic track on the album. Another jungle base and lyrics against global markets make up "Crash".
In the following tracks, ADF brings us the sounds and melodies typical of their DJ-Set nights, with two different instrumentals: "Colour Line" jungle-dub; "Taa Deem" reggae-dub. The next ones are "The Judgement", a track with a reggae-dub flavor, including female vocals with a full voice and accompanied by Indian melodies in the background; and "Truth Hides", an instrumental with spoken words about "hidden truths." "Rebel Warrior" is a remake of a namesake reggae track from their first album; remixed with jungle-tribal rhythms, it talks about a defender of his own culture from daily westernization. The ADF collective concludes with two more instrumental tracks, "Committed To Life" and "Scaling New Heights". An anti-war proclamation ends the album: "I hate war in all its forms/physical… psychological… spiritual… emotional… environmental…/ because I wish I had been born into a world where it was unnecessary".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Real Great Britain (03:19)
Union Jack and Union Jill
Back up and down the same old hill
Sell the flag to all the youths
But who swallow the bill
"Murdoch she wrote"
Him have his hands in the till
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
Care for the community
Cuts the nation into three
Rich pickings for the first
Bottom third you'll never see
While middle England keeps swinging it's loyalty
No concern for the future
Just with dead royalty
So will the Real Great Britain step forward
This is the national identity parade
Shoe gazer nation forever looking backwards
Time to reject the sixties charade
Not enough schools
Not enough homes
Just phony care in his millennium dome
More Prime cuts than beef on the bone
And there's too many questions you're not answering tone
Union Jack and Union Jill ...
So will the Real Great Britain step forward ...
03 Officer XX (03:24)
Written by: das, pandit, savale, tailor, zaman
Canteen culture colouring the view
From hendon to eltham, not following the clue
Corruption instruction, the life blood of the blue
The whole of the barrel is rotten and not just a few
Evidence buried with a secret handshake
Investigating officers on the double x take
Lost records and notes, excuses half baked
Screwed up a4 and this is no mistake
Officer xx, it's time to liaise
Let me introduce you to the brand new krays
No mention of the gangster- 'informer' is the phrase
No communication in the 'in' and 'out' trays
Mi5, them building up combat 18?
Nazi turnouts and the bnp in between?
Running drugs for money for the loyalists?
Macpherson, how come you missed the whole a this?
Defective constable, what you gonna say?
Suspending our belief and still on full pay
Chief condon is safe, what did you expect?
Who's up next?
Calling officer xx!
Spindoctors and editors engaged in a pact
Information leaked out to cover up the facts
Daily slackmail onto a nice little earner
While another thousand cases still on the back burner
Zero tolerance for jack the home sec
Running for cover 'cause him know we're after him neck
Him a huff and him a puff
Inna de name a de law
When it come to the guilty him a man of straw
This shameful spectacle we can see clearly
Conspiracy in practice
Now not in theory
Heard all of de report and looked over the whole a de text
Time to step forward now officer xx
Defective constable, what you gonna say?
Suspending our belief and still on full pay
Chief condon is safe, what did you expect?
Who's up next?
Calling officer xx!
05 Riddim I Like (04:31)
Instrumental
Written by Aniruddha Das; Benjamin Zephaniah; Deedar Zaman; Deeder Saidullah Zamen; Doctor Das; John Ashok Pandit; Sanjay Gulabhai Tailor; Steve Chandra Savale
06 Collective Mode (03:54)
Written by: Das, Pandit, Savale, Tailor, Zaman
For every opportunity we squeeze de last drop
Seeds sown inna de past and now we're reaping de crop
Yer, spreading de roots an we're no longer under-ground
Those dat turned away are now turning around
Homebeats and High-hats mightier than de sword
Version excursions an breaks from abroad
Too many secret histories dat have never been told
Reveal hidden agendas
Remove de blindfold
Examine de story before you tek de stage
Unscramble freaktalk displayed pon de front page
Frequency flashing synchronised like strobe
Can't do it alone you need to get into de collective mode
Need to get into de collective mode
We're taking note of every brand new sound
Keeping our minds open
Cor we know we're future bound
Together we must recognise the signs of our times
Together we must learn to read between the lines
Make your own programme
No bother become digital captive
You need some Audio
So you must be Active
Get into collective mode
Spirits become positive
You live de life you love
An you love the life you give
No-one is an island whether you like it or not
All inna di same boat which is about to be rocked
Warning light flashing synchronised like strobe
Can't do it alone you need to get into de collective mode
Do you spend too much time living inside your head
Worry too much about what the other man said
Need to pay heed to dis sonic reflection
Turn dis disconnection into interconnection
And get into de collective mode
07 Crash (05:30)
Written by: Das, Pandit, Savale, Tailor, Zaman
New Crash is coming
Watch out IMF dem try to tek away your sight
Boom an a gloom, recession it a loom
For de second time in ten years monies starting to get tight
Better tek cover 'cos de crash is coming soon
Lock, stockbrokers and two smoking barrels
Spun de roulette wheel an a you won de first time
So forget bout prayers an a your christmas carols
Welcoming de new year back on de breadline
New Crash is coming
Pointing de index finger at meaningless figures
Dow Jones, Wall St., Nikkei they all lied
Speculator, golddigger an free market ligger
Here comes a FTSE up your backside
Pacific Rim panic, taking de tooth from de tiger
Financial fallout overriding de geiger
A war of nerves between the US an Japan
Once again de underdogs end up carrying de can
Watch out IMF dem try to tek away your sight
Boom an a gloom, recession it a loom
For de second time in ten years it's your money or your life
Better tek cover 'cos de crash is coming soon
International Monetary Foul play
Talking doublespeak is de order of de day
Freetrade, Slavetrade, slip dem a bung an call it aid
Gurus, Fakirs: Witness de mess dat they have made
It's de end of history, we say it's just de beginning
Struggle for de truth no more doctors will be spinning
Pilger prophecised de profits of de city
Media mogul dying wid his hand inna de kitty
We live in de world that time BeGATT
Time to check de data debris an change de format
All de way from de frontline here comes de backlash
Bad news outnational announcing de crash!
08 Colour Line (04:05)
Today, the Colour Line/Is the Power Line/Is the Poverty Line
Racism and imperialism work in tandem
And poverty is their handmaiden
Those who are poor and powerless to break out of their poverty
Are also those who by and large are non-white, non-western, third world
Poverty and powerlessness are interwined in colour, in race
Discrimination and exploitation feed into each other today
Under global capitalism...
We are back to primitive accumulation - plunder on a world scale
Only this time, the pillage is accompanied by aid, sustained by expert
advice and underpinned by programmes and policies that perpetuate dependency
The IMF, The World Bank, Structural Adjustment Programmes
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - GATT,
are just a few of the organisations, schemes, projects
which under the guise of developing the third world, plunder it.
Trade agreements and commodity price-fixing, patents and
intellectual property rights
They lock them into paralytic dependency
There's no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal
governments...
Black is not just the colour of our skins
It's the colour of our politics...
There's no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal
governments...
Today, the colour line/is the power line/is the poverty line
10 The Judgement (08:24)
Written by: Das, Pandit, Savale, Tailor, Zaman
Read up your history and then you'll reach your destination
Teach up the youth and then you'll find the solution
Education is the key
Will be for eternity
Come focus upon dis and then you will see
We've come so far so fast from what they call the past
Laying down foundations and we know they're gonna last
Present and the future we will never fall
Realise united we stand and divided we fall
This is the wall of community sound
We're comin to get you comin to track you down
No escapin from this militant scientist
Suffer no defeat is upon top of the list
Hope and glory the myth of the Labour Tories
We're comin down and tellin you a different story
Any time when we come positive and confident
And them coulda never escape this ya judgement
12 Rebel Warrior (04:50)
Ami bidrohi!
I am the Rebel Warrior
I have risen alone
With my head held high
I will only rest when the cries of the oppressed
No longer reach the sky
When the sound of the sword of the oppressor
No longer rings in battle
Hear my war cry!
I'm here to teach you a lesson
I'm here to torture your soul
I'm the itch in your side that's got out of control
'Gonna prey on your conscience
You'll be praying for forgiveness
Seen all the evidence
No longer need a witness
So take my word man
Here's my sentence
One hundred thousand years of repentance.
One hundred thousand years of repentance.
Check my anger, it's real
Ain't no token
I'll be satisfied only when your back's been broken
It's my burning ambition to burn down your empire
Man I'll be building you a funeral pyre
The fire in my eyes
If looks coulda kill
I won't be satisfied until I've had my fill.
Check my anger, it's real
Ain't no token
I'll be satisfied only when your back's been broken!
Ami bidrohi!
I am the Rebel Warrior
I have risen alone
With my head held high
I will only rest when the cries of the oppressed
No longer reach the sky
When the sound of the sword of the oppressor
No longer rings in battle
Hear my war cry!
Repetitive beats
Beating against your skull
I'll be striking you down to the sound of the war drum
The doum!
The doum of the dhol
Taking its toll
Null and void is what you've become
An underground army with my brothers and sisters
Hand to hand fighting
Building up a resistance
Repetitive beats
Beating against your skull
Null and void is what you've become
Ami bidrohi!
I am the Rebel Warrior
I have risen alone
With my head held high
I will only rest when the cries of the oppressed
No longer reach the sky
When the sound of the sword of the oppressor
No longer rings in battle
Hear my war cry!
A radical fusion
Strange alliance
The siren and the flute in unison
'Cos it's a part of my mission
To break down division
Mental compartments
Psychological prisons.
I'll be sowing the seeds of community
Accommodating every color every need
So listen to my message
And heed my warning
I'm telling you now how a new age is dawning
Ami bidrohi!
I am the Rebel Warrior
I have risen alone
With my head held high
I will only rest when the cries of the oppressed
No longer reach the sky
When the sound of the sword of the oppressor
No longer rings in battle
Hear my war cry!
Ami Bidrohi!
Ami Bidrohi!
Yes the unity of the Muslim and the Hindu
Will end your tyranny
Ami Bidrohi! Ami Bidrohi!
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