Sure, so are most songs, but for a band so clearly tied to ideology it’s disappointing that there’s such little here to rouse our interest, let alone propel us to the barricades. Lyrically it’s pretty uninspiring, though. Opener ‘A New London Eye’ meshes vibrant percussion and lashes of distortion with atmospheric strings and breathless vocals, an almost exhausting inauguration to an album that has very little let up, bar the strangely Explosions In The Sky-esque ‘Power of 10’.
Other highpoints include the tense electro of ‘Urgency Frequency’ and the catchy if somewhat inane travelogue ‘London To Shanghai’, whilst ‘Futureproof’ is the album’s most abrasive track, like Pitchshifter with added flute. It’s a mix that generally works well, their songs a multicultural hybrid of western hardcore and African/Middle Eastern tradition that’s only occasionally jarring, and never generic. The album’s title track showcases the band’s sound perfectly, strained, anxious riffs shot through with abrasive rapping and a heavy rhythm section, and laced with what one might call more ‘ethnic’ instrumentation. And whilst A History of Now probably won’t get them it, there’s a fair bit here to like.
To be honest, Asian Dub Foundation deserve more success.
