Access Denied

Brexit, Trump and the rise of right-wing populism has positively cried out for the militant intervention of Asian Dub Foundation, who stand alongside Aki Nawaz’s Fun-Da-Mental as the most uncompromising voices among music’s politically-motivated angry brigade – yet it has been five years since the band’s last album, 2015’s More Signal More Noise.

The group has finally broken its silence on Access Denied with a torrent of pent-up fury that takes on issues such as Tory immigration policy, xenophobia and the climate emergency in typically confrontational style. The sonic mix of punk, jungle, dub, rap, jagged rock’n’roll, beatboxing, Asian and world music elements has remained little changed over two decades but an eclectic freshness is conferred by the sampled voices of Greta Thunberg on ‘Youthquake Part 1, Greta Speaks’, comedian Stewart Lee on the wickedly hilarious ‘Coming Over Here’, Palestinian shamsteppers 47SOUL on ‘Human 47’ and Chilean vocalist and student protest leader Ana Tijoux on ‘Frontline Santiago’. ‘Hands up if you’re a citizen of nowhere and you’re not scared,’ they sing on ‘Stealing the Future’. A much-needed manifesto of resistance at a time when social distancing means we aren’t going to be able to take to the streets to make ourselves heard any time soon.