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Asian Dub Foundation’s distinctive sound is a combination of hard ragga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub basslines, searing sitar- inspired guitars and 'traditional' sounds gleaned from their parents' record collections, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics.
They started off in 1993 at London based organisation Community Music where bassist Dr Das taught music technology. He teamed up with rapper Deeder Zaman and civil rights worker DJ Pandit G to form a sound system to play at anti-racist gigs. After recruiting guitarist Chandrasonic and Sun-J on live technology and 'radical movements,' the line up was complete.
Their excellent debut album 'Facts and Fictions' came out in 1995 and was unfortunately largely overlooked by the British music media. And at that time, to be 'Asian' was not yet considered 'cool.' It was Primal Scream who finally drew attention to ADF by inviting them on their tour in summer 1997. ADF spent most of 1998 touring, consolidating their reputation for uplifting live sets and for attracting culturally mixed audiences
ADF's forceful presence has helped to demolish many stereotypes of Asian musicians and by extension, Asian people. An acknowledgement of this came in the form of the BBC Asian Award for Music in December 1998. Their politically conscious lyrics are an inspiration and an education - 'Free Satpal Ram’ did much to draw attention to the situation of an Asian man locked up for self-defence.
Their higher profile enabled ADF to attract funding from the London Arts Board to establish ADF Education (ADFED) to promote and practice the teaching of music and technology to young people. ADFED now functions as an independent organisation running various workshops in London.
The beginning of 2002 saw long-time inspiration Adrian Sherwood (On-U Sound) as executive producer of the new album, 'Enemy of the Enemy' (released Feb 2003). It includes contributions from guitarist Ed O'Brien from Radiohead, Sinead O'Connor, Hindi vocalist Sonia Mehta, Ghetto Priest and long time friend and collaborator, Navigator.
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