Tuesday 27 July 2010

Radical Unknowns

Of all the Anarcho-Marxist-post-punk-ska-dub bands who were around at the tail end of the eighties into the nineties, RDF were perhaps the most interesting.

Mark Astronaut (The Astronauts) was undoubtedly the wordsmith of the alternative generation. Lyrically he was unsurpassed, he could always nail it, delineate it perfectly, in the most brilliantly savage and naked way possible.
But RDF ruled when it came to structuring their songs, and Chris Bowsher was never afraid to move away from gritty, socio-realist lyrics into more expressionist and figurative territory.
His imagery left its mark; abstraction often reveals a greater sense of truth.

The heavy dub and bass sodden sound that accompanies much of his downbeat delivery makes for the perfect marriage; and like any good marriage moves from the calm to the tempestuous in a moment; in the most unpredictable fashion.

They may not have been as big as The Poison Girls or Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, and they certainly didn't sell as many records; but for those of us who were around at the time, we all knew; we appreciated Radical Dance Faction; it was our little secret.

I'm afraid I've let my anorak slip on this one; and whereas I am normally very fussy about detail, the track titles for this selection are unavailable.
I know, very slovenly on my part, but it's somehow indicative of that early nineties period...

'Tension Town' is the only track that is repeated from my earlier RDF post, but this version is much expanded, with a long dubby outro (O, whatever happened to the long dubby outro?).
The tracks come from two vinyl albums (Hot on the Wire and Borderline Cases, I think...); and if there is any real RDF aficionados out there who want to share their knowledge and give us the titles then they will receive much kudos.
O yes!

RDF - 17 tracks - eighty-five minutes worth.
Decent cassette rip @320kbs
Radicalize here

8 comments:

Lord Stranger said...

I don't know about Hot on the Wire, but I've got Borderline Cases and the tracks are:
Surplus People
Chinese Poem
Borderline
Rogue Trooper (Live Mix)
4 Chuck Chant
Back In The Same Place
Riverwise
Hot On The Wire
Sorepoint For A Sickman
Firepower (Military Surplus/RDF)

roy rocket said...

Thank you.

That does seem to confirm one of the albums.

And hey, much KUDOS to you!
roy

corbypunk said...

Hi roy, tracks 1 to 9 are the borderline cases lp, but the miltary surplus song firepower is missing. tracks 10 to 16 are from rdf`s second lp Wasteland, but theres a few songs missing:
1. Station x to red flame
2. Working class hero
3. Tension town (missing)
4. Tense (a dub of tension town-missing)
5. Sadness
6. Babylon
7. Can`t stand no more
8. Hope(missing)
9. Next man in europe
10. What the man made of stone.

the last track on your tape is the title song from the landing party 12". New rdf lp "ammunition" is due out any day now, should be very good.

roy rocket said...

So there we have it!
A bit of a hodge-podge.

Thanks for the info, CP, and the heads up for the new album.
Wow, something to look forward to...

Respect to ya, roy

Anonymous said...

alreet roy
you neat me to it mate,second half is from the 1991 'wasteland'lp

1. Station X Red Flame
2. Working Class Hero
3. Tension Town
4. Tense
5. Sadness
6. Babylon
7. Can't Stand No More
8. Hope
9. Next Man In Europe
10. What The Man Made Of Stone

hope yr well.xx

Barbi-Q said...

Roy,

I've got all the following on vinyl, but not got them near my USB turntable yet:

Borderline Cases
Wasteland
Landing Party 12"

do you need any of these? Let me know and I'll make it so. About time I posted something...

roy rocket said...

As you can see from above I seem to have it covered... more or less...
A bit messy though.
If you feel I'm missing something (as far as RDF is concerned [!]) please do fill the gap...
Cheers for your comment and offer, roy

Barbi-Q said...

Just upped Landing Party:

http://chaliceandting.blogspot.com/2010/08/landing-party.html