Asian Dub Foundation (ADF) was formed in summer 1993 from an education workshop in
Farringdon, London, run by Aniruddha Das (bass, programming) and assisted by John Pandit (mixing) which was attended by rapper
Deeder Zaman. This early line-up released the sound-system based
Conscious EP in late 1993 on
Nation Records. Guitarist/programmer
Steve Chandra Savale was invited to join in early 1994 and ADF became more of a band format. Sanjay Tailor joined the band as live midi/programmer and DJ soon after. This completed the full live line-up of the band and their debut album
Facts and Fictions was released in late 1995, following the single "
Rebel Warrior". Initially not widely known in a UK music scene focused on
Britpop, the band toured in mainland Europe and gained a substantial following, particularly in France where their French-only release
R.A.F.I. sold 100,000 copies. In 2003, they released
Enemy of the Enemy, which became their best-selling album and contained the track "Fortress Europe", an attack on European immigration policy, along with "1000 Mirrors", a collaboration with
Sinéad O'Connor about a woman serving life for killing an abusive husband. In 2003, they played their biggest gig in front of 100,000 people in France at a celebration of
José Bové, a radical campaigning farmer. For 2005's
Tank, they were joined by
On-U Sound collaborator Ghetto Priest on vocals, with the help of
Adrian Sherwood. The band continued performing their
La Haine soundtrack around the world for the next five years. They developed this approach in 2004 with another improvised soundtrack to the film
The Battle of Algiers, first performing the piece at the Brighton Dome. In 2005, they won "Best Underground" at the
UK Asian Music Awards. Bassist Dr Das announced his intention to retire in May 2006 to resume teaching and produce his own music. He was replaced by Martin Savale, who also plays bass with British-Asian electro/grunge/hip-hop band
Swami. In September 2006, the dub/punk opera "Gaddafi: A Living Myth", with music by ADF, opened at the
London Coliseum. In Spring 2007, Asian Dub Foundation announced the release of a
best of compilation
Time Freeze: The Best of Asian Dub Foundation which included a bonus disc of rare remixes and live tracks, including a live recording of a
Public Enemy song featuring
Chuck D. The album also featured a new track recorded with former vocalist Deeder Zaman. In May 2007 ADF performed a radio session and interview on the
Bobby and
Nihal show on
BBC Radio 1 where they performed three new tracks: "Climb On", "Superpower" and "S.O.C.A.". In June 2007, they were the only Western act to perform at the Festival of
Gnawa music in
Essaouira,
Morocco playing to a crowd of 60,000 people and collaborating with traditional Gnawa musicians. In August 2007, Asian Dub Foundation played with two new vocalists, Al Rumjen (previously and subsequently with
King Prawn) and Aktarv8r, who returned after MC Spex was asked to leave the band due to personal issues. In November/December 2007, Asian Dub Foundation recorded a new album,
Punkara. It was released in March 2008 and followed by a tour of Europe and Japan. In 2009, ADF contributed to the Indigenous Resistance project after having met up with the Atenco movement in
Mexico. The band worked on their new album, provisionally entitled
A New London Eye, which would feature Ministry of Dhol, Nathan "Flutebox" Lee, Chi 2 and Skrein. The album eventually came out as
The History of Now and the band toured extensively to promote it. The cover contained many fantasy iPhone "Apps" intended to parody the contemporary age. In May 2012, the band was asked by immersive pop-up subversives
Secret Cinema to revive their live soundtrack to
La Haine at
Broadwater Farm and also performed the piece in Paris the night of the French elections. Later that year ADF were rejoined by Dr. Das, Ghetto Priest and Rocky Singh. They recorded a new album,
The Signal and the Noise, and headlined a series of festivals including "Bearded Theory" and "Asigiri Jam" in Japan. In 2013,
The Signal and the Noise was released only in Japan. In 2014, the band debuted their live soundtrack to
THX 1138,
George Lucas's first feature-length film. George Lucas and his collaborator
Walter Murch gave their blessing to the project and it was performed at the Brooklyn Festival in
Prospect Park which led to an Arts Council Sponsored Tour of the UK in 2015. In 2015, ADF released
More Signal More Noise jointly between Believe Records their own ADF Communications imprint. The album was a re-recorded version of the 2013 Japan only release. and played headline slots at WOMAD and
Boomtown festivals in 2016. In June 2017, it was announced that the band is working on an upcoming album, titled
Access Denied. In May 2019, the band released Youth Quake Pt 1, pairing electronica and breakbeats with a speech that teenage Swedish activist
Greta Thunberg gave to the United Nations conference on climate change in 2018, in support of
Extinction Rebellion and the urgent struggle for Climate Justice. The band reissued the album ''Rafi's Revenge'' the same year. In April 2020, the band released the video for
Stealing the Future. The track was from the album
Access Denied that was released in September of the same year. Collaborators on the album include comedian
Stewart Lee, Palestinian refugee band
47Soul,
Ana Tijoux and
Dub FX.
Campaign for UK singles chart number one In September 2020, the band released their song with Stewart Lee called "Comin’ Over Here". This track was based on a sketch from the BBC programme
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, which was a routine about the UKIP politician (and later, party leader)
Paul Nuttall. In December 2020, a video for the song was released, which was part of an internet campaign to get the record to number one in time for the chart published by the Official Charts Company on 31 December 2020, thereby making it the 'Brexit Day Number One'. The song debuted at number 65 on the
UK Singles Chart and made it to number 1 on the UK Singles Sales Chart. ==Discography==