And ADF have also been busy recruiting: two new MCs, Aktar and Spex, as well as a new drummer and a new percussionist. Dr Das, who plays bass, recounts: "The drummer - it was him that found us, in Toronto when we were playing live there - he used to practise using our records. The funny thing was, that we did a live version of "Naxalite" during the sound system - bass, guitar and drums - and he knew the arrangements better than we did! The percussionist is someone we've known for a long time, and the two MCs, who have contributed a kind of energy, a real presence, came from ADFED. We're a full-fledged group now. We've got all the elements we were looking for. And the positive thing is that the new members come from our audience."

After a two year break from the studio, Asian Dub Foundation are back! Back in a new world, you could say. September 11th has obviously changed some of the parameters. ADF now take a more universal stance in their approach to problems. Dr Das: "Take our name, ADF, it's obvious to you what we were saying right from the start, you can see what we were directly concerned with. The fact of being Asian, and more specifically, being Asian in Britain. With time, and given all the people from different backgrounds who have showed an interest in us, we've obviously evolved. So it was natural for us to open up the debate even further. Today, it's not just about being Asian in Britain, or racism in Britain, we've made connections. The people who follow us have made connections. Yeah, I think there's a more global vision on this album." The title of the album is "Enemy Of The Enemy". Sonic: "There's this English phrase: the enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine, and the friend of my enemy is my enemy. Today - friends enemies, wars, the world, it's all mixed up, it's all confused. It doesn't really make any sense anymore. The title refers to "global confusion" (laughs). We don't really know who are real enemies are anymore. Sometimes, the very people we take to be our sworn enemies turn out to be friends. And vice versa."

The struggle has been going on for ten years now and there's no sign of them letting up. It should be noted that Asian Dub Foundation have never understood how art and politics can be disassociated from one another. As far as they are concerned, the two things are intimately and intrinsically linked. Dr Das: "I don't believe that there is any form of artistic expression which is unaffected by what is happening in society... the difference is that we recognise that it affects us, whereas a lot of people just don't recognise the fact. All music is political. You can't ever separate the two. We simply present our ideas to people, put forward what's going on in our heads, or what comes up in our conversations, and we just hope that they will continue the conversation between themselves, that they'll start something, form a group, whatever... That they'll actually do something. Politics isn't just about belonging to a party or taking part in a demonstration. It might be simply deciding to get up in the morning after lying in bed for three weeks. Thanks to the music, just getting up and doing something. " Sonic: "And even if it works for only one person, it means that it was justified, that it served a purpose."

Blending dub and post-punk guitar with incisive melodies, "Enemy Of The Enemy", is a scathing attack, an unstoppable sonic manifesto. The calm and the tempest. The rage and the rhythm. ADF fuse genres without ever losing sight of themselves. Having grown up listening to evocative styles of music, they know, better than most surely, how to reconcile different elements. But, if you want to avoid getting on the wrong side of them, don't ever use the word "eclectic" to describe their music. Sonic: "This word "eclectic" is unacceptable. It doesn't mean anything to us. It suggests that we put things together which are totally unrelated. Our philosophy from the very beginning has been that all music is connected". Das:" It's a word we've always rejected, right from the outset."

Adrian Sherwood was executive producer on this record. This is the first time that the group has agreed to be "guided", or advised by someone from outside the collective. And yet this collaboration with Sherwood is unlikely to be a big surprise to many people. These two entities were made to cross each other's paths. There's no doubt about it. Sonic: "Adrian Sherwood is a hero for this band." Dr Das: "Adrian was the first one to put the noise in dub. It seemed appropriate that he should come aboard. I really believe that ADF write good songs, and play great gigs, but even after seven years, we still had something to learn about controlling the mix. We're much more disciplined in the studio these days." Sonic: Making this record was a real pleasure. It's not always been that way.... Adrian took the tracks a long way, a lot further than we had initially imagined. And that's great. For example: "1000 Mirrors" started off sounding more some kind of Hollywood cocktail music (laughs); Adrian took it into some heavy dub territory."

The self-dubbed "Midi Warriors" are back then. And on fine form too, it would seem. "Fortress Europe" is the first single and the opening track on the album, and clearly sets the tone. The song's theme was inspired by "Flash", François Bergeron's short film, which deals with immigrant migration into Europe, illustrating the problem by setting it against the backdrop of a terrifyingly realistic fictional context. Sonic: "This song looks into the future and attempts to see what might happen when European governments rebuff waves of mass immigrant migration, people fleeing from their countries because of war, economic misery, by simply raising the barriers even higher, and developing more and more elaborate techniques of exclusion and control." It's a hypnotic mix, lying somewhere between urban trance and P.I.L-style punk, recalling Public Enemy circa "Fight The Power" at times. The overdubbed vocals lend the whole song even more depth. "La Haine", inspired, of course, by Kassovitz' film of the same name, comes on like a snake. Deliberately sinuous dub with a guitar that sounds the death rattle. "1000 Mirrors" features captivating vocals by Sinead O'Connor (think Horace Andy!!!) and is another dub track. The bass draws us in on a journey to the heart of domestic violence. Based on another true story, this song tells the tale of Tsoora Shah, who was accused of murdering her husband, after he had continually beaten and humiliated her for years. Even more than before, ADF have a capacity for switching mood.

They've learned to hone their compositions. Songs are shorter, and as such have an even greater impact. Together with "Enemy Of The Enemy", the closing track on the record, "Blowback" - which is closer to full-on hip hop and unflinching ragga - is one of the two tracks which relate directly to September 11th. Black humour combined with the worrisome acknowledgement of a world, which is increasingly obscuring the issues at hand. Who is allied with whom? Who is on whose side? Sonic: "Anyone with tanned skin, particularly if they happen to wear a turban, is a potential enemy these days. Got to keep them off those aeroplanes..." "Rise To The Challenge" is an invitation to a communion of the senses, an invitation to celebration: that of the return ADF in fine fettle. It's a positive hymn, which has us joyfully anticipating the live shows to come.. as does "Power To The Small Massive", which addresses the fans of the group, who have followed and encouraged them since the very beginning. It's also a big-up to ragga, a groove-packed thank-you, and a call for the fight to go on. In "Cyberabad", Sonic - who writes most of the lyrics - is referring to Hyderabad, which is situated in the south of the country in Andhra Pradesh and is the Indian equivalent of America's Silicon Valley. His father grew up in this region, and he attempts to dispel some of the generally accepted ideas about India, seeks to erase this "established vision fuelled by hippy tourism." Indeed, this region is actually renowned for its long tradition of scientific research and innovation, which have the capacity to "help the country solve its problems on a long-term basis." A mix of tabla, dub and grainy, spatial guitar work, blending roots and modernism, "Cyberbad" carries you away.

"Enemy Of The Enemy" is an uncompromising album, yet it is perfectly accessible to anyone who has the capacity, or simply the desire to open their mind. At a time when frontiers are seizing up, walls are being erected, and music doesn't really mean that much anymore; when people are reassuring themselves by burying their consciousness in consternating (and dangerous) automatic gestures of self-defense and unbridled consumerism, the sound and the words of ADF represent a form of palpable hope. A viable alternative. Dr Das: "The title of the album means that ADF are still hardcore, just like we were at the start. Because the world out there is hardcore too, more so maybe now than it has ever been. We always reflect this reality."
Sonic: "Some people seem to picture us, see us like politically committed maniacs. Like guys who sit around with the weight of the whole world on their shoulders. But that's not true..."
Dr Das: " We're just normal people. And we're back!"

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