On 22
January 2015 On U-sound re-released the first four albums by the psychedelic dub
collective.
Formed around percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and driven by that man
Adrian Sherwood, the African Head Charge ensemble has been making music since
the early 80s along the way incorporating such luminaries as Jah Wobble and
Skip McDonald. The percussion of Bonjo was always the
underpin to the sound which started as dub but not in its truest sense. Taking the spirit of Africa and combining
with psychedelic dub roots and electronica they remain a performing act to this
day.
As part of the stunning re-release programme On U-Sound have seen fit to send
the first four African Head Charge albums our way via vinyl and download.
My Life In A Hole In The Ground – 8.5/10
Seen
as a ground-breaking album, the 1981 debut for African Head Charge not only
played on the title of Brian Eno and David Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, but also on the concept. The idea from Eno was to create a ‘vision of
a psychedelic Africa’ and that ideal was taken one step further by Sherwood and
Bonjo with the ‘hole in the ground’ referring to London’s Berry Street Studios
which were accessed via a flight of
stairs.
Samplers had not yet become part
of the studio set-up so multi-edits were used as a way to enhance existing
sounds. The album was, and still is
viewed as an experimental work combining African rhythms, dub and jazz. From the opening sounds of the kuwenge (and
African version of the Jews harp), the album is never simple to define moving from
the downright weird to continuing strange.
Tracks Stebeni’s Theme and Far Away Chant were used in the David
Lynch film Wild At Heart
which gives an idea as to the esteem in which it was regarded. Far Away Chant displays a sumptuous emptiness
which must surely have been the influence for Mark Stewart’s Jerusalem two
years later with it’s dubbed out percussion and spoken reverbed vocals, indeed
several sounds which would appear in subsequent On U releases can also be
occasionally heard.
The Race Pt One employs a near ska backbone as it skiffles
and echoes along and Stone Charge has some near painful saxophone screeches and
Primal Once Drop draws on oriental influences too.
Family Doctoring provides possibly the most commercially
listenable track in an album that owes as much to the past as it does to the
future.
Environmental Studies – 8.5/10
A year after their debut,
African Head Charge released their second album Environmental Studies allegedly
named after the Producers passing interest in the subject as school.
Again working as a
collective the album drew on the talents from members of The Slits, The Pop
Group, Aswad and Rip Rig & Panic amongst others. The sounds of distant drums were created by
Sherwood positioning speakers and microphones in the stone built toilets at
Berry Street making it literally the only place it could have been
recorded.
The album becomes less
avant garde and progressively more ‘musical’ but is noticeable for having
several effects and sounds played louder than the band itself. Take opener Crocodile Had Luggage for
instance with the sound of water and overpowering the sound of the music. The bass voices resonate and reverb over a
tribal beat creating a fine result.
Snakeskin Tracksuit has
some wonderful dubs throughout and bounds along from start to end. The use of heavy dubs is prevalent throughout
the album often overtaking much of the music itself with High Protein Snack
being case in point as it intermingles with freeform jazz interludes.
The dark vocals appear
again on In A Tap, Breeding Space and closer Latin Temperament with the later sounding
like a cross between Human League’s Do Or Die and The Clangers.
Drastic
Season – 8/10
With the third African
Head Charge album came intense tracks with Sherwood quoting them as "experiments in active frequencies, out of time noises,
rhythms within rhythms, and endless tape edits”.
Many
of the effects used would form, or may already have been included in, the sound
armoury of Sherwood. Several noises would
later appear in varying guises across many On U tracks particularly those of
the Tackhead experimental spin-off Fats Comet.
African
Hedge Hog and Depth Charge in particular were uncompromising pieces of avant
garde collage and the band could now firmly say that they had indeed created a
genre of their own with few dubs and more ‘weird’. Drastic Season was largely instrumental with
Sherwood now stamping his own inimitable style.
The
eight tracks were certainly not easy listening, and one had to question the
direction that African Head Charge were now taking and where their audience
would lie. The answer was simple and an
army of On U aficionados was slowly growing.
Off The Beaten Track – 9/10
With
Off The Beaten Track came a slight change of direction fuelled by meets with
Skip McDonald, Doug Wimbush and Keith Leblanc as the African Head Charge sound
took on a funk fuelled percussion driven angle.
The new percussive side would meet with the approval of Bonjo and his
wanting of ethnic chants.
Studio
technology had leapt forward and the team were able to use loops ad samples to great
effect and with the addition of guests Jah Wobble and several dogs, violins and
sounds breaking glass it became the album to set the standard by.
One
Albert Einstein even makes an appearance (presumably unknowingly) on the semi-ambient
Language & Mentality and the beats employed throughout paved the way for
the genre of World Music. Throw It Away
too sounds like the forerunner to albums of the mighty Tackhead as vocal samples
combine with hard-hitting sound crashes.
Off
The Beaten Track was probably the most ‘organised’ album to date. Gone were the avant garde touches to be
replaced by at times, a hip-hop pre-cursor and the act had now set the bar very
high indeed.
Published on Louder Than War 19/01/16 - here
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