African Head Charge

Born in the early 1980s within the orbit of the British label On-U Sound, African Head Charge is built around Jamaican percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and London producer Adrian Sherwood. African Head Charge develops a psychedelic dub where reggae basslines, nyabinghi percussion, studio echoes and textures close to post-punk or experimental music blend into often very atmospheric pieces. The project operates as an ensemble with a variable lineup, featuring over time musicians such as Skip McDonald and Jah Wobble, while keeping Bonjo Noah as its anchoring figure. The early albums My Life in a Hole in the Ground (1981), Environmental Studies (1982) and Drastic Season (1983) quickly established this hybrid aesthetic, continued on Off the Beaten Track (1986) and Songs of Praise (1990). After In Pursuit of Shashamane Land (1993), African Head Charge continued to alternate between studio work and live recordings, and returned to On-U Sound with Vision of a Psychedelic Africa (2005), Voodoo of the Godsent (2011), Return of the Crocodile (2016) and Churchical Chant of the Iyabinghi (2020). African Head Charge thus remains linked to a dub scene open to intersections between Jamaican heritage, British experimentation and percussive drive.