Asian Dub Foundation remain a powerful, uncompromising force.
Continually touring, the band are capable of taking their message to each and every continent. Recently heading back into the studio, the group have also confirmed plans for a new live film score.
First: their album. Asian Dub Foundation will release new full length 'More Signal More Noise' on July 10th. Preceding this, the band will provide the live score for a screening of George Lucas' dystopian sci-fi 'THX1138' on June 19th.
Ahead of this, Clash has grabbed the video for 'More Signal More Noise' opener 'Zig Zag Nation'. Shot in Brazil, you can watch it below and then check out a quick Q&A with guitarist Steve Savale.
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What led you to score THX1138?
This will be our third live re-score, the first being La Haine in 2001 (which we still perform to this day) and the second was Battle of Algiers in 2004. All three films have something that chimes with the ADF vibe; La Haine deals with the French anti-police riots in 1993 that occurred at the same time as we were making our first album which had a song dealing with something very similar in London ('TH9'). Like-wise the anti-colonial drama of 'Algiers' with all its relevance for Iraq fit squarely into ADF's world view in 2004.
I first saw THX in the 1990's on Alex Cox's 'Moviedrome' where he said that the film suffered from being "too alien", i.e. impenetrable, too unrecognisable. he was right then, but I still loved it. However when I looked at it again last year it seemed much less "alien"; a permanent avalanche of confusing, bleeping digital information, constant surveillance of everyone's most intimate communications, compulsory drug treatment (ritalin?), a terrifying blend of absolute state control, petty consumerism and fundamentalist religion… sound familiar?
Also there are technical considerations, e.g. is there an existing soundtrack,can it be worked with, is there a lot of dialogue etc. When we were asked by Celebrate Brooklyn Festival last year to do another soundtrack this one fitted the bill.
How free were you able to approach the project? How is working to visuals different from making a 'normal' record?
The film pretty much dictates everything.The trick is to simultaneously enhance it without overpowering it. It's nothing like making an album or doing a "normal" ADF set.
The score incorporates elements of your new album, to what extent are they distinct? How do you separate them?
We just wrote stuff that we think works, sometimes things work that you've written before unexpectedly. 'Blade Ragga' from the new album worked very well in more motion-oriented scenes,while "Cyberabad" from an earlier album worked a treat for the Robot Factory. Apart from these everything is brand new, but we will be pulling ideas from it for new material in the future.
'Zig Zag Nation' is the new single, what made this an appropriate song to pick? Could you tell us a bit about the video?
It's the opening track, it's upfront and recognisably ADF in our view. The video was made in the Grafitti Village in Sao Paulo, Brazil during the World Cup. I also kind of thought 'Zig Zag Nation' went with the uncertainty around the election, how things in the UK aren't so black and white anymore (which is what the lyric is about). But as it happened it turned out to be a very straight line… again.
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Asian Dub Foundation will release new album 'More Signal More Noise' on July 10th, with the band set to re-score THX1138 at the Barbican in London on June 19th.
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