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Nuff Vibes
Apache Indian
CD on Island Records through Polygram
Movin' On
Apache Indian
CD single on Island Records at import shops
Reviewed by Sean Malloy

Sounds of a Jamaican dance hall combined with percussion arranged by Sheila Chandra, lyrics as political as Disposable Heroes or Jimmy Cliff, vocals sung or "toasted" in a mix of Punjabi and English and backing vocals straight from Soweto are all influences and elements to be found in Apache Indian's Nuff Vibes EP.

Apache Indian reflects a fresh new wave of progressive performers drawing on a rainbow of musical influences and life experiences.

Apache's family migrated from the Punjab to Birmingham, where he grew up listening and participating in the reggae scene established by earlier West Indian migrants.

Working as a welder for five years, Apache worked in reggae scene as a sound person. He began to mix reggae with Indian bhangra sounds. With the development of the "Ragamuffin" sound, which fuses reggae style with rapping (toasting) and hip hop, Apache began to write material that reflected his musical and social background.

No Reservations, Apache's first album, took up issues relating to everyday life of British-Asian youth, building bridges between the reggae, ragamuffin and Indian crowds. Apache finished recording No Reservations at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong studios. At Tuff Gong he worked with Sly Dunbar, Maxi Priest and other reggae top-liners.

After Jamaica he toured India, whipping up a storm with his radical spiels on India's caste system and the oppression of Sikhs. By the time he left India he was a super star and nicknamed the "Gandhi of pop".

Nuff Vibes also examines racism and prejudice through the track "Caste System", which compares the Indian caste system to the racist pecking order in Britain.

"Warning" is a reworking of "AIDS Warning" from No Reservations. "I had people writing to me admitting almost that they had AIDS and didn't know what to do or how to deal with it. I had to rewrite the AIDS song for the EP. It's a lot more meaningful now", said Apache in music journal Straight No Chaser. "Warning" discusses the urgency of safe sex. Street violence is the topic of the final track, "Fun".

"Boom Shack-a-lak", the EP's single, is a light introduction to new forms of popular music growing out of cross-fertilisation between British migrant communities. Just as the white working class youth of the late '70s and '80s mixed with the black youth to produce a number of black, white and "two-tone" Ska bands with progressive views, so Apache Indian reflects a new generation of social, political and musical mix.

"Movin' On" is an agitational, anti-racist piece written in response to the election of a British Nationalist Party representative to a council seat in Milwall. A proportion of money from sales of the single is going to a number of anti-racist charities and trusts.

The a cappella version of "Movin' On" included on the single has a lovely bhangra percussion break in the middle of the song.