For 30 years African Head Charge have been ploughing their unique sonic furrow, wandering hazy-dazed around the outer borders of experimental dub and super-mellow sounds. When they first appeared in 1981 on Adrian Sherwood's groundbreaking On-U Sound label there was no equivalent band to compare them to, except some of Brian Eno's global magpie studio excursions, notably My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with David Byrne which provided them with a sonic template.
However, led by percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, who's based in Ghana and London these days, they found a wider, if still niche, audience in the late Eighties and early Nineties with the boom in ambient electronica favoured by ravers chilling out, post-club. AHC's sound was, after all, never about cerebral avant-garde-ism, but warm, rolling space-cadet grooves.
AHC's other great influence has been touted regularly in song, including two titles on the new album, "Take Heed... and Smoke Up Your Collyweed" and "Stoned Age Man". Their 12th studio album, then, produced by Sherwood, is not a departure from their usual style, there are no sudden moves into dubstep. Instead, African Head Charge conjure up loping percussion, spiced with tribal chants and wibbly electronic noises, occasionally topped off with rambling Rastafarian vocals that sound like Frank Bruno after nine skunk weed chillums. Particularly noteworthy is the sampled table-tennis percussion on "The Best Way", the Valium Afro-funk of "This and That and the Other", the clanging plangent guitar on "Timpanya" and a looping sample that states, "Undulating to atonal music while experiencing way out trances".
The odd thing is that their formula still works so well; comfortable yet slightly off the wall. Where some bands strive self-consciously and struggle hard to achieve a gumbo of global sonic influences and wear their ganja affections heavily, AHC just get on with it and remain remarkably effective.
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