A little while ago, I was lucky enough to be asked to help put together some of the press for the new African Head Charge album, A Trip To Bolgatanga. Along with a lengthy band biography, and couple of short interviews, I also scribbled down my first impressions of the record. Since I didn’t want to duplicate anything, when the record was released, rather than a review, I posted a list of personal favourites from AHC’s 40+ year career. However, a few months have passed, and I’m not sure if all of my text was used – you can probably guess that I wrote quite a lot – so I’m posting those first impressions here, now. 

I know that a few music “critics” seemed disappointed that A Trip To Bolgatanga wasn’t / isn’t another My Life In A Hole In The Ground, but to be honest that only proves that those folks haven’t been paying attention to how AHC as a project has evolved. In my opinion the new LP is the outfit’s perfect next step… 

African Head Charge return to iconic imprint On-U Sound with their first new album in twelve years. Titled A Trip To Bolgatanga the recordings are led by founder member, master percussionist, Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, and On-U main man Adrian Sherwood is once again at the studio controls.

AHC have been active for over four decades, and the LP also sees other members of the musical entity’s extended family come back to the fray. Multi-instrumentalist Skip McDonald, and fellow Tackhead co-conspirator Doug Wimbish, contribute to a variety of tracks. Drummer Perry Melius, whose involvement in the project dates back to the early `90s, adds a righteous rhythmic heft to a trio of tunes. In addition there are a number of notable fresh recruits. The horns and reeds of Paul Booth, Richard Roswell, and David Fullwood, Ras Manlenzi and Samuel Bergliter on keys, Vince Black on guitar. There’s additional percussion from Shadu Rock Adu, Mensa Aka, Akanuoe Angela, and Emmanuel Okine, strings from Ivan “Celloman” Hussey, plus the voice of the mighty Ghetto Priest. Very special guest, kologo virtuoso, King Ayisoba, also provides vocals, and demonstrates his dexterity on the traditional two-stringed lute. Where previous albums have been a melting pot of global influences, on their new LP AHC have but one place in mind. A Trip To Bolgatanga is a musical journey to Bonjo’s current hometown in north Ghana.

Things begin moving with Bad Attitude, which puts King Aylsoba up front – leading the griot groove and group shouts. The song, set to subdued shuffling percussion, seemingly totally organic until his plucked and strummed strings get a little twisted, and the bass starts to rumble. Accra Electronica has clarinet and morphing, mutating horns frugging to a forceful thump. The big band jazz of the solos, juxtaposed with heavy dubbed out sections. Wild wah-wah wedded with a haunted dancehall, calypso, voodoo vibe. Push Me Pull You punishes reeds and sampled wildlife with dangerous doses of delay. Whipping up a world of echo, where hardware hijacks holy healing chants. Creating a calm that’s moody, slightly menacing. Like the score for a temple somewhere up river, on a search for Joseph Conrad’s Colonel Kurtz. A grandiose dread grounation deconstruction that’s perhaps a nod to director David Lynch using AHC to soundtrack the scariest, most memorable, scene in his movie, Wild At Heart.

I Chant Too is a slow motion Nyabinghi spiritual, whose gated and deceptively deep synthetic swells are seriously introspection-inducing. Bolstered by buzzing bass and speaker shaking subs, plaintive pleas providing a prayer-like quality. Asalatua combines cracking congas with a kinda disco kick. The track’s tumbling layers conjuring a carnival air. Human whistles vying with carefully controlled explosions of electronic effects. Deft use of dub on Passing Clouds has drum hits doubled, tripled, quadrupled. Hammond organ, beautiful brass blasts, and akete, repeter, synergising on a sublime savannah blues. The tempo low, but the feel of the tune triumphant. I’m A Winner accompanies its titular motivating mantra with Gwo-Ka gear and the intermittent boom of super sub-bass. Ritual licks of the mende, and toumblak, as Bonjo commands “Don’t let your doubts hold you back.”

On the title track, a serenade from that clarinet, plus some sparse, spare, but perfectly positioned piano, help to make it another outstanding mellower moment. Never Regret A Day, set to the stirring sound of African lion Ayisoba’s kologo, explains that each day, even a bad one, is a blessing, bringing benefits, lessons to be learnt. A psychedelic therapeutic borne out of boisterous bottom end pulses, the closing Microdosing is a miracle of massed hand-drumming. Skip’s flashes of funky organ and skanking guitar adding further flavour. As with every On-U production, each repeated listen reveals fresh detail, plus its power won’t be really understood until heard on a big system, when it’ll reduce all competition to rubble.

African Head Charge’s A Trip To Bolgatanga is out now, care of On-U Sound.