Still more media praise for re-issues of African Head Charge

I’m including yet another small sampling of the laudatory media response to the newly released set of re-issues of the seminal experimental dub work of African Head Charge released by the UK’s pioneering avant/reggae label On-U Sound.

The label is issuing four studio albums originally released 1990 – 2011 alongside an album of unreleased music from the 1980’s and a 5 CD box set. I’m hoping you’ll consider covering this release via album reviews or interview. Please let me know if you need the music.

Part one of the epic reissue campaign On-U Sound started in 2016 with the reissues of the crucial early years of African Head Charge, the long-running collaboration between master percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and maverick UK dub producer Adrian Sherwood is what’s discussed in the coverage below.

According to legend, Adrian Sherwood conceived of his long-running project African Head Charge after hearing Brian Eno talk about-as the title of a 2005 AHC album puts it-a Vision of a Psychedelic Africa. Since the group’s first release in 1981, Sherwood and the many artists who have cycled through the ensemble have made that vision a reality, one bass-heavy tune at a time. On-U Sound, the label that Sherwood has helped run during throughout, is keeping that vision alive this month with the re-release of four AHC albums-Vision, 1990’s Songs of Praise, 1993’s In Pursuit of Shashamane Land and 2011’s Voodoo of the Godsent-as well as a set of outtakes from the Praise and Pursuit sessions. You can pick them up as a deluxe CD set, a vinyl bundle or a la carte.

For anyone looking to dip their toes in and just snag one of these double LP sets (each comes with a lovely poster that includes an interview with AHC co-leader Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah), there’s really no bad place to start. All five records are thick with grooves and Sherwood’s playful production techniques. The emphasis is on rhythm, with ropey basslines provided by legendary players like Wayne Nunes, Doug Wimbish (Living Colour), and Ras Levi, and a heady cluster of percussion instruments. Folks tend to lean toward Praise as being the high water mark for AHC, but I wouldn’t miss out on the fluid churning of Vision or the dub mixes that take up the second side of the outtakes record Churchical Chant of the Iyabinghi.

Robert Ham/Pastemagazine.com 3/31

On their classic 1981 debut My Life In A Hole In The Ground, dub reggae ensemble African Head Charge established an open-concept brand of reggae that expanded on the psychedelic implications of dub while connecting the music to its continental African heritage. From the rolling bassline and twisted melodica runs of ” Family Doctoring” to the traditional African drumming and chants of “Stebeni’s Theme”, My Life In A Hole In The Ground has as idiosyncratic a core aesthetic as anything else released in the genre around that time. In the decades that followed their debut, African Head Charge and legendary producer/engineer Adrian Sherwood continued to develop the aesthetic on albums like Environmental Studies, Songs Of Praise and Akwaaba.Drumming Is A Language 1990- 2011 is a sprawling 73 track reissue that takes listeners on a trip through this fertile period in the group’s history, focusing on their output from the 1990s into the 2000s. ” Free Chant (Churchical Chant Of The lyabinghi)” from 1990’s Songs Of Praise is a dense, dramatic opener. “Orderliness, Godliness, Disciple And Dignity” sets up a slow, long-swinging kick drum and electric bass groove while spacy synths and distorted guitar swoop in and out of the sonic picture. The track “My God” suggests that beyond being a vehicle for sonic experimentation, African Head Charge and the music created under its banner is, at its core, an instrument for spiritual exploration. With a wailing vocal sample, wet with delay and reverb, calling out to God for salvation, “My God” makes a convincing argument for the compatibility and kinship of Jamaican music with gospel and the blues.

For 1993’s In Pursuit Of Shashamane Land the band stretched out even further, embracing the contemporary sounds of downtempo music, electronica and hiphop. “Animal Law” is a slinky, rattling bit of dark rockish reggae while “No Don’t Follow Fashion” is a disarming cut and paste collage layered over a heavy breakbeat. With its mid-tempo back, deep synth bass and spare guitar, ” Fever Pitch” finds the band tipping its hat to hiphop. Two years after the release of In Pursuit Of Shashamane Land, percussionist/founder Bonjo lyabinghi Noah would leave London, settling in Ghana. Two of the album’s standout tracks, “Mama Shante Garden” and “Kumassee” find the band diving headfirst into its own sweet and infectious brand of utopian Afropop.

Drumming Is A Language 1990- 2011 makes the case for African Head Charge as one of the great, prolific bands to emerge since the 80s. Throughout this anthology, we bear witness to an ensemble that is both rooted in a continuum of deep and ancient musical traditions, while also pushing against the parameters of modern sonic experimentation. The music is trippy, world ly and deeply grounded, engaging Africa, Europe and the Caribbean in a cross-continental dance unlike any other.

John Morrison/The Wire April

Tough monochrome steppers on an album of outtakes by African Head Charge, the On-U Sound double-don duo of Adrian Sherwood and Jamaican percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah. This was a collaboration that Sherwood said was about painting in Eno’s ‘vision of a psychedelic Africa’, but it’s not got the same sonic ‘otherness’ that quote implies. To me, African Head Charge have always been a counter-argument to ‘World’ Music collaborations, flipping the table of tidily exoticised ‘east-meets-west’/’north-meets-south’ tourism projects that skim and gloss traditional music and techniques. The tracks on here are all outtakes from other records, sharper and heavier than the scuffed sounds of albums like Environmental Sounds, with some sweetness and sweeping phasers in the mids.

The so-called genre (aka marketing tool) that is ‘world music’ shouldn’t really exist, which is an essay for another time, but it’s worth mentioning that this was made in the midst of world music’s commercial hey day, which makes it feel all the more meaty and radical.

Jennifer Lucy Allan/The Quietus.com 3/23

This new series picks up the story in 1990 with the album that is widely regarded as their masterpiece, Songs Of Praise. It’s been expanded to a double album with a whole raft of bonus tracks, as has 1993’s In Pursuit Of Shashamane Land. 2005’s Vision Of A Psychedelic Africa and 2011’s Voodoo Of The Godsent are pressed to vinyl for the first time, both as double LP sets, and as a companion piece to the Return Of The Crocodile LP of early rarities, Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi compiles alternate mixes and dubs from 1990 -1993. Each vinyl LP comes with a double-sided 24″ x 12″ poster containing an exclusive new interview with Bonjo in 5 parts alongside rare photos. All of the contents from the vinyl reissues are also anthologized in the 5CD and 36 page book box set, Drumming Is A Language, the companion set to the acclaimed Environmental Holes & Drastic Tracks.

About African Head Charge

African Head Charge started life as a studio recording project in 1981 when the percussion talents of Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah combined with the studio wizardry of Adrian Sherwood. Bonjo had come to England from a Rasta camp in the hills of Clarendon, Jamaica. From as early as he can remember he studied and played percussion, learning not only Rasta/Nyabinghi drums but also African and Afro Cuban rhythms. He also loved to experiment, which made working with Sherwood perfect. Working with tape loops, manipulated and vari-speeded 1/4 inch tape that was re-recorded back to the multi-track tape, reverbs and delays, this was then applied to the performances of the musicians. And so the first psychedelic African dub LP My Life In A Hole In The Ground was created. It was not until the late 1980s that African Head Charge made its first appearance as a live band, taking place at the University of London (ULU) and instantly a sold-out success. What followed in the next few years gave them semi-legendary status, with performances at festivals such as Glastonbury and Womad, and visits to Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Three more largely experimental studio albums followed throughout the 80’s: Environmental Studies (1982), Drastic Season (1983) and Off The Beaten Track (1986). The latter has been hailed as both a seminal recording in the progressive use of sound-bite technology and an excellent example of the integration of live instrumentation and programmed music.  1990 saw the release of the Songs Of Praise LP  widely acknowledged as their masterpiece. It featured religious chants from different parts of the world set to an African dub backdrop of multi-layered percussion and demonstrated another evolution in their sound. It was followed by the complimentary In Pursuit Of Shashamane Land album in 1993. In 1995 Bonjo left London to start a new life in Ghana and it was not until 2003 that he made a return visit to London and renewed his partnership with Adrian Sherwood on Vision Of A Psychedelic Africa, released in 2005. Voodoo of the Godsent is their most recent studio album, described by the label as being ‘the culmination of thirty years of endeavour.’ In 2016 On-U Sound put out vinyl reissues of the first four African Head Charge albums, which had become increasingly sought after by DJs and collectors. These were followed this up with an LP of unreleased tracks and version excursions from from that same early-80s period, Return Of The Crocodile, carefully transferred from the original decaying tapes and sequenced for release by On-U archivist Patrick Dokter.African Head Charge have returned to the live stage in recent years with a line-up featuring original African Head Charge members and augmented by the electronics of Gaudi (recently heard on Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Rainford and Heavy Rain). The current show fuses together djembes, guitars, drums, keys and vocals with heavy electronic sampling and visuals. The collective use this blend of live and electronica to generate an intoxicating soundscape of reggae-inflected drumming, visceral vocals and bottomless, thrumming bass-lines that truly reach to the heart of your being.Buy/Stream/Pre-order link: https://on-u-sound.ffm.to/ahcdrum

About On-U Sound

On-U Sound is an iconic independent label with a treasure trove of remarkable music, and sits in a unique position historically as a junction point between the heavy influence of Jamaican music on UK culture and the development of disparate sounds such as post-punk, hip-hop, industrial, jungle, dubstep and beyond.The label emerged from a fertile UK DIY scene that birthed contemporary imprints such as Rough Trade, 4AD and Factory. Since 1981, with label boss and producer Adrian Sherwood at the helm, On-U Sound has released over 100 albums and singles and launched the careers of countless artists.As a producer, Adrian has worked with The Slits, Cabaret Voltaire, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, The Fall, Sinead O’Connor and more. His remix credits include Depeche Mode, Afrika Bambaataa, Blur, Primal Scream, Air and Peaking Lights. Key On-U Sound artists include Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, New Age Steppers, Singers & Players and Bim Sherman.In 2015, Adrian continues to be in-demand for his unique sonic vision as a producer and he tours globally with his unique live mixing/DJ hybrid sets. There is also a major project underway to reissue and reappraise the amazing back catalogue of classic records that have been released on the imprint, with represses of classics sides, retrospective compilations such as the Sherwood At The Controls volumes and Science Fiction Dancehall Classics, rare cuts from the vaults, all complimented by critically acclaimed new productions with Pinch, Nissennenmondai, Roots Manuva and Lee “Scratch” Perry. The label recently scored their first Billboard number 1 with Heavy Rain, a dub album co-produced by Perry and Sherwood and featuring guest musicians including Brian Eno, which hit the top of the US reggae charts on release.

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