Radical Dance Faction – Raggamuffin Statement (1995)

Radical Dance Faction (RDF) were founded by Chris Bowsher in Hungerford in 1986. Originally known as ‘Military Surplus’, the band has experienced many line up changes, with at least thirty different people having been part of the band at one time or another. Bowsher is the only person who has been in every line up of the band.

RDF’s music combines punk, dub, and ska, while Bowsher’s lyrics, spoken rather than sung, deal mainly with political issues, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in the song “Chinese Poem”. Bowsher also witnessed first hand the Hungerford massacre, describing his experience in the song “Hot on the Wire”.

In 1990 they signed to Southern records, releasing two albums on their own imprint Earthzone and going on to tour Germany and other parts of Europe. One tour was as the support act to Rebel MC and they also supported Ziggy Marley at one point. RDF appeared at the huge Summerjam festival in Germany, July 1993.

RDF were a regular act on the UK free festival scene prior to the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, and were part of the crusty/anarcho punk movement until they called it day in the mid 1990s. Their final album "Raggamuffin Statement" was a mixture of live recordings and remixes with new songs, including “Martin Foran”, about the wrongly convicted prisoner.


Tracklist:

1 Beast In The Doorway (Sonic Mix)
2 Dirty Old Town (Sonic Mix)
3 Beast In The Dub (Sonic Mix)
4 1st Dub / Martin Foran (Sonic Mix)
5 Rogue Trooper (Genetic Infantryman Mix)
6 Hot On The Wire
7 Punks With Guns
8 Dum Diggy (Instrumental)
9 Babble On
10 Tense Dub
11 Go To A War
12 Statement (Hungerford Poem)


Radical Dance Faction – Raggamuffin Statement (1995)
(320 kbps, cover art included)