- It’s twelve years now since Combat Wombat released their last album, Unsound System. To properly understand Combat Wombat and the place they occupy in Australian music, however, you have to realise that records are only one element of the group’s output and ethos.

Combat Wombat are an institution of Australian radical politics. Their gigs are mostly political fundraisers or frontline blockades, to which they bring the party with a portable, solar-powered soundsystem. They have performed and recorded music everywhere from remote aboriginal communities to refugee camps, travelling in a vegetable-oil fueled van with a solar powered recording studio.

Their songs are a kind of a folk music for the political activist subculture – the choruses are chanted at demonstrations, their dancefloors become a rite of passage for young activists. That gives some indication of just why this album has been so eagerly anticipated.

Sonically, Just Across The Border walks familiar territory for the band – Monkeymarc’s beats mix dub, hip hop and danceable styles from around the world. The rhymes are shared between Elf-Tranzporter’s tongue-twisting ragga flow and MC Izzy’s more rudimentary, punky style.

Those seeking slogans to chant along with will enjoy This Is The Place and Asylum; while the dancefloor will be satisfied with bangers like the bollywood funk of Let Them Know and the heavy dub of Shoot To Kill and Babylon Time Bomb.

Lyrically too, the themes won’t be new to the Combat Wombat fan – militarism, environmental destruction, refugees, and the activist cheerleading the group have been providing since their debut single Miraculous Activist in 2001. Exhibit A, from Let Them Know: “You know this feeling – you are too brave, too strong and a fire burns so deep in your heart no-one can ever put it out.”

So what’s different? Maybe the music has mellowed out a bit with the years, as songs like Asylum and Just Across The Border seem much less geared for the dancefloor. Maybe they’ve gotten a bit more serious too – the light-hearted skits that broke up the last album have been replaced by samples of political speeches with heavy subject matter.

Mostly, though, Combat Wombat have kept up what they do well. Those who are still around from the earlier albums and political struggles will welcome new material; while for newer listeners and idealists, Just Across The Border will be a worthy discovery of a revolution you can dance to.

- Andy Paine.