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