Days of Youth...Day 3

 

This all tied in with the Youth encounter I made in March while I was preparing shares for Music that Needed Work - R. One of the bands that needed my attention was Radical Dance Faction. While I was working on the three releases that needed work, I noticed that RDF had a new-to-me 2023 release...you guessed it...a collab...Youth meets RDF.

Youth Meets Radical Dance Faction - Welcome to the Edge, Cadiz Music DADIZCD262, 2023.
decryption code in comments

Welcome to the Edge    
Cockroach Town    
Are You Dancing at the Back    
Food Bank    
I Carry the Mountain    
I am the Needle    
Police State    
Gonna Live Forever    
Secrets    
Notes from the Edge    
Starship Wolf    
Music for Lifts

 

 

Final Day 4 tomorrow,
NØ

Musick that Needed Work - R: Radical Dance Faction

 

I've shared Chris Bowsher’s Radical Dance Faction or RDF here before. 

 

I enjoy all of Chris' output but had most of it stashed away in the Musick that Needed Work folder for one reason or another. Mostly just gain issues or ID3 tags or the like, but my copy of Raggamuffin Statement was 192Kbps & I needed a better (320K) version. Here are the three that I had needing work. These are essential... 

 

Radical Dance Faction - Borderline Cases, Earth Zone EZ1CD, 1990.
all decryption codes in comments

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 (originally by Military Surplus)

 

 

 

On Raggamuffin Statement, tracks 1-5 are special mixes, tracks 6-11 are live tracks, & track 12 is a poem by Chris after witnessing first-hand the Hangerford massacre where 27 year old Michael Ryan shot & killed sixteen people, including an unarmed policeman, his own mother, & then himself. 

In the daily press, Chris Bowsher, 28, an acquaintance, described Ryan as "a bit of an oddball". 

 

Radical Dance Faction - Raggamuffin Statement, Inna State Records CD004DS4A, 1995

Beast in the Doorway (Sonic mix)
Dirty Old Town (Sonic mix)
Beast in the Dub (Sonic mix)
1st Dub / Martin Foran (Sonic mix)
Rogue Trooper (Genetic Infantryman mix)
Hot on the Wire
Punks with Guns
Dum Diggy (instrumental)
Babble On
Tense Dub
Go to a War
Statement (Hungerford Poem)

 

 

 

After Raggamuffin Statement the band went on hiatus, regrouping in 2006 & again in 2012. Here's a more recent release with Chris teaming up with a bunch of my favorite artists: Gaudi; Nik Turner (Hawkwind & more); Steve Cruickshank (Revolutionary Dub Warriors). This one is 2xCD, the second one being Dub mixes by Youth.

 

Radical Dance Faction - Daydream Dystopia 2xCD, Youth Sounds YS002, 2018.

CD1 -
Old Man's Eyes
Feel Dread
Lived/We Loved
What the Man Made of Stone
RU 1
Rogue Trooper
Surplus People
Riverwise III
Paris

CD2 -
Old Man's Eyes (Youth Dub mix)
Feel Dread (Youth Dub mix)
Lived/We Loved (Youth Dub mix)
What the Man Made of Stone (Youth Dub mix)
RU 1 (Youth Dub mix)
Rogue Trooper (Youth Dub mix)
Surplus People (Youth Dance mix)
Riverwise III (Youth Dub mix)
Paris (Youth Dub mix)

 

 

Enjoy,
NØ

Been lissenin' to Mucho Musick

Formed from the ashes of UK anarcho/reggae outfit Military Surplus (see bonus tracks "Time of the Dispossessed" & "Firepower" included below), Radical Dance Faction or RDF as they were most commonly abbreviated, was founded by Chris Bowsher in Hungerford in 1986. RDF's line-ups were erratic to say the least (with over thirty different people having been part of the band at one time or another). Founder, lyricist & vocalist Chris Bowsher is the only person who has been in every line up of the band.

Bowsher's lyrics are hip/beat poetry, more spoken than sung, with imagery of modern decay & capitalism gone wrong. The style is primarily Dub/reggae/ska. Bowsher is a veteran of the early punk explosion, particularly enamoured of bands such as the Clash & the Ruts who had attempted to bridge the gap between rock & JA sounds. Along with the Levellers, RDF became prime movers in the media-christened 'crust or crusty' movement. Much of their following was comprised largely the dispossessed & homeless, the young & the impoverished, bonded by a political consciousness that has its roots in hippiedom, beatnik romanticism & early 80s anarcho-punk.

Here RDF is: Chris Bowsher - vocals; Linda Goodman - vocals; Phil Astronaut - guitar; Brian Powell & Mark McCarthey - bass; Graham Spey = keyboards; Tim Hill - saxophone; Sid Wobble - harmonica; G.T. Moore - melodica & hand drums; Graham Usher - drums & hand drum; Style Scott - drums with Kay Beckett & Steve Swann - backing vocals.

Radical Dance Faction - Wasteland, Earth Zone EZ-003, 1991.

decryption code in comments

Station X Red Flame
Working Class Hero
Tension Town
Tense (instrumental with surprise WSB)
Sadness
Babylon
Can’t Stand No More
Hope
Next Man in Europe
What the Man Made of Stone

bonus tracks:
 Time of the Dispossessed
Firepower

Enjoy,
NØ