East-West fusions are nothing new. Nearly 100 years ago, some Western classical music was influenced by Indian classical or Javanese gamelan music. In the 1950s, violinist Yehudi Menuhin performed with Indian sarod player Ali Akbar Khan and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. By the 1960s, John Coltrane was exploring Indian music, while Shankar's star pupil, George Harrison, was bringing Indian music to a global audience through the Beatles.
While this opened the floodgates to Indian subcontinent/Western collaborations, Japan too has attracted its fair share of interest. Two of the best recent Japan-meets-West projects will soon be on tour here, as well as another where East meets West, united by global club culture.
Asian Dub Foundation is not really a fusion group, but a reflection of the different communities of modern Britain, the real sound of Britpop. Of Asian background, ADF emerged from the community workshops of east London, and the so-called "Asian underground" scene of the late '90s that went overground once Talvin Singh and others tasted mainstream success. Playing down the obvious tablas and sitars, instead they embrace jungle break-beats, dub, rap, trip hop, guitar distortion and other cutting-edge influences. ADF does, however, pay a healthy respect to the past, especially Pakistani Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whose song "Taa Deem" it covers on its latest album, the aptly titled "Community Music."