9-11-08, 9:53 am

CD Review: All Rebel Rockers Michael Franti & Spearhead

Original source: Morning Star

'The rude boy's back in town,' booms Michael Franti at the beginning of his new album. He's talking about his return to Kingston, Jamaica, where he recorded the politically incendiary Yell Fire! two years previously.

Since then, he and his band Spearhead have toured the world, playing gigs and festivals and screening the ground-breaking documentary I Know I'm Not Alone.

They were in London's Koko recently, performing much of their new material to a packed hall of mainly US twenty and thirty-somethings.

The album is a skilfull balance of soulful love songs and revolutionary rock, all washed over with heavy dub. Casual listeners will hardly realise that they're picking up a radical message, which works because the songs are fun to listen and sing along to. The politics provide an extra edge.

Legendary producers Sly and Robbie give the disc a slick reggae feel, but the album covers a wide variety of genres, with some tracks reaching true crossover status. At points, it slips into a sort of organic techno, with the live show feeling more like a rave.

Centrepiece and first single is Hey World (Remote Control Version), a stomping hip hop-folk hybrid with a kick-arse catchy chorus, a musical mile away from the near-acoustic Hey World (Don't Give Up Version), a few tracks on.

This style of mix and remix is a theme of Franti's live show as well as his albums, giving the tunes numerous new interpretations. For nearly two hours, he bounces across the stage, directing the crowd's energy with shamanic precision, leading up to the encore's ecstatic improvisational jam.

Anti-war anthem Light Up Ya Lighter sparks spontaneous rebellion as Camden's century-old theatre starts filling with pot smoke. Franti asks everyone to hug their friends and tell them 'I love you' over and over.

Funky trance-rock sleeper Soundsystem is a highlight of both the night and the album, with a wall of sound sneaking up on the listener from out of the blue. This track, in particular, is crying out for a remix.

Franti may have mellowed since his Television, Drug of the Nation days, but he's reaching a much wider, if still mostly underground, audience.

Blacked-out by the mainstream media, he has relied on word of mouth and the internet to spread the word, but All Rebel Rockers could well be his breakthrough.