As righteous as Asian Dub Foundation’s message was in their late-‘90s heyday, this eighth studio full-length is actually a reshuffled version of a 2013 album which only came out in Japan. Diminished status aside, the racism and imperialism the Hackney seven-piece rail against remains relevant, and plenty here finds ADF open-eared and vibrant. Ramping up the metal guitar quotient, ‘Radio Bubblegum’ combines digital reggae with early Sabbath psych, an audacious blend even if songs bemoaning the quality of the music they play on the radio are always cringey. Elsewhere dub, jazz and post-punk are threaded together in fresh, unorthodox fashion (‘Semira’), just about outweighing the scattering of rote drum’n’bass numbers.
Noel Gardner