Punkara

Described by the band as ''a move away from club-oriented sounds'' in favour of a heavier, ska-punk/rap-rock sound, Punkara initially disappoints: frankly it's a bit Limp Bizkit, albeit with faster beats, and prone to lyrics that shun righteous polemic for the sort of clever-clever wordplay much beloved of nu-metal bands (see Altered Statesmen, all about world leaders and their predilection for chemical refreshment).

Still, while the overall shape of Punkara is something less than revolutionary, there's some incendiary fun to be had within. A cover of No Fun with Iggy Pop on vocals could have been a 'Why Bother?' moment, but ADF recreate the track with pounding Asian drums and blasting pipes, and to his credit Iggy doesn't seem to mind one bit. Album highlight, Speed Of Light, meanwhile, melds Bhangra strings, airy female vocals and jump-up drum 'n' bass tempos with a genuinely uplifting effect. Not their best record, but that Asian Dub Foundation are still fighting the fight is a thrill in itself. --Louis Pattison

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ADF were famously described by Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie as the best live act in the world. Small wonder, then, that, as was the case with Radiohead, The Beasties and Rage Against The Machine, ADF were specifically invited to tour with the Scream by the band themselves. Anyone who ever saw them can attest to the combustible potency of their "antifusion" of dub, banghra, hiphop, rock. And now, with Punkara (in which "punk" meets banghra), they've stormed back with an album in which everything about them onstage - their raucousness, the smiles on their faces as they kick out - shines through on record. It's epitomised in a cover of "No Fun", a collaboration with Iggy Pop himself, who when they played a festival together told them they were the best group he'd seen in 30 years, and when he played their demo in his car got so excited he copped a speeding ticket. ""No Fun" involves two visceral music forms," says Chandrasonic, "unbridled, off the hook banghra meets unbridled off the hook thrash proto-punk. The two aren't combined very often but they have a lot in common." And true enough, Iggy fits right into the banghra context as if into a leather glove.

When recording "No Fun", Chandrasonic told their Punjabi vocalist Sups to "imagine if you were your Dad drunk on whiskey." Something of the energy of a fight at a banghra wedding tears through Punkara. It reflects a change of line-up, and, despite hints of grime and dubstep here and there, a move away from club-orientated sounds, which ADF regard as currently a little staid, towards a music more in keeping with ADF's incendiary, impatient spirit. Geopolitical consciousness lingers, naturally, in tracks like "Living Under The Radar (Ghostplane)" - as you would expect from a group who in the past campaigned for the freedom of the unjustly imprisoned Saptal Ram, a group whose commissions have including live soundtracking for the highly charged films La Haine and The Battle Of Algiers and scoring an opera about Colonel Gaddaffi. But with the world having eventually come round to ADF's viewpoint on The Iraq war, for instance, they feel no need to apply the sledgehammer to a wall that's long since crumbled. On Punkara, they're more satirical. "Altered Statesmen" takes its cue from a documentary which shows the historical dependency of world leaders such as Churchill and Kennedy on drugs while in office, while "Burning Fences" is a Ballardian fantasy of the respectable middle classes resorting to violence. Or maybe not such a fantasy. "Riots in IKEA?" muses Chandrasonic. "It's suburban madness!"

"Ease Up Caesar" features new vocalist Al Rumjen (formerly of King Prawn) whose punk/ska sensibility he brings to bear in a performance that brings the agitpop energy of The Beat's "Stand Down Margaret" bang up to date. And, for respite, there's "Speed Of Light", in which the Mali desert is imagined from the perspective of being squashed on the tube, in which all the fragrances and sampled vistas which colour ADF are brought sweetly to the fore. "Stop The Bleeding", meanwhile, shows a more nuanced, personal aspect to an album more sung than shouted; "gonna get myself up off the ground/take my head out of my hands". ADF face the future with deep-dyed positivity. Their fan base is truly global, spanning France and Eastern Europe and as far afield as Japan (where they are due to play the closing slot at the Fuji Rock Festival). ADF are back - get ready for the sound of the alternative crunch.