An album that crosses over every imaginable genre!

Life is a strange thing, if you don’t mind me getting a bit pessimistic on this sunny day: just over two weeks ago, when I got the Fun>Da>Mental’s ‘There Shall Be Love!’ album, it was simply the fourth release by the Brit-based crossover agitators. Then, the events in New York and Washington loaded it with different message.

Fun>Da>Mental’s musical mix consists of Eastern music (principally sounds associated with Islam countries), hip-hop elements (American street expression!) and rock (another Western ‘invention’); there is also reggae, dub, funk, blues to make this truly a Global music celebration. A culture-clash of some magnitude at this moment in human history. A very, very ‘dangerous’ concoction as far as the politics are concerned…

Additionally, this really is a brave album at the time when blandness and fake-emotional salvos are the actual industrial prescription. Fun>Da>Mental have been creating this kind of sounds-cape for a while, they’ve been fusionists for much longer than it’s been fashionable. Aki Nawaz’s collective have always focused on original expression and ‘There Shall Be Love!’ sounds fresh, intriguing and epic.

From the opening ‘The Last Gospel’ (with its samples of Mahalia Jackson), this is a journey into sound that is as precious as life itself. ‘Pollution’ marries intricate harmonies with powerful dub basslines, the title track is a prime example of cyber-World music cut. They even collaborated with a group of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s nephews…

‘TSBL!’ is a fierce and fiery soundtrack to the British social mixture and anyone with half-a-brain functioning should be – lovin’, lovin’ it! Although it doesn’t sound as confrontational as it appeared to in the past, the commitment is still as huge as a Hadrian’s Wall of prejudice.

Imagine, this band has been together for a decade, as long as Oasis but Fun>Da>Mental are still important, vibrant and able to surprise. The other lot keep selling albums while this one has defined the 11th Commandment in musical terms.

8/10


Fun>Da>Mental play London’s Cargo on Friday, 28 September 2001