African Head Charge
Off The Beaten Track

Arguably the most popular act to emerge from Adrian Sherwood's highly respected On-U Sound Records, African Head Charge created a series of critically acclaimed albums dedicated to further experiments in their label boss, mentor, and producer’s patented style of psychedelic dub.

African Head Charge was founded in 1980 by percussionist Bonjo I (full name: Bonjo Iyanbinghi Noah), who surrounded himself with an ever-shifting cast of supporting characters (including colorfully named henchmen like Prisoner, Crocodile, Junior Moses and Sunny Akpan), and captained their debut, My Life in a Hole in the Ground to almost immediate international acclaim. Three more albums: ‘82’s Environmental Studies, ‘83’s Drastic Season, and ‘86’s Off the Beaten Track – followed in due course, and quickly grew African Head Charge’s fan base, regardless of their staunch refusal to perform live throughout this time period. Then again, it could be argued that the band’s intensely studio-created, hyper-mixed, and often abstract ‘psychey dub’ compositions weren’t at all ideal for on-stage reproduction. In any case, African Head Charge eventually did concede to go out on tour; then enjoyed an extended break before reconvening to work on a 1991 comeback album entitled Songs of Praise.

Since then, the group has continued to add to their already rich legacy with new albums (In Pursuit of Shashamane Land arrived in ‘93, Akwaaba two years later), remix sets, singles, and compilations, but not...

Arguably the most popular act to emerge from Adrian Sherwood's highly respected On-U Sound Records, African Head Charge created a series of critically acclaimed albums dedicated to further experiments in their label boss, mentor, and producer’s patented style of psychedelic dub.

African Head Charge was founded in 1980 by percussionist Bonjo I (full name: Bonjo Iyanbinghi Noah), who surrounded himself with an ever-shifting cast of supporting characters (including colorfully named henchmen like Prisoner, Crocodile, Junior Moses and Sunny Akpan), and captained their debut, My Life in a Hole in the Ground to almost immediate international acclaim. Three more albums: ‘82’s Environmental Studies, ‘83’s Drastic Season, and ‘86’s Off the Beaten Track – followed in due course, and quickly grew African Head Charge’s fan base, regardless of their staunch refusal to perform live throughout this time period. Then again, it could be argued that the band’s intensely studio-created, hyper-mixed, and often abstract ‘psychey dub’ compositions weren’t at all ideal for on-stage reproduction. In any case, African Head Charge eventually did concede to go out on tour; then enjoyed an extended break before reconvening to work on a 1991 comeback album entitled Songs of Praise.

Since then, the group has continued to add to their already rich legacy with new albums (In Pursuit of Shashamane Land arrived in ‘93, Akwaaba two years later), remix sets, singles, and compilations, but not all of their recordings have been made available, or are at all easy to come by on vinyl or CD. 1986’s classic Off the Beaten Track, for one, has been long out of print, so it was up to Anthology Recordings to license and bring its much loved tracks to the web as digital downloads. Here they are now, ready to rekindle the memories of converts past, as well as introduce the unique dub creations of African Head Charge to a host of new fans. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

Off The Beaten Track

In the intervening years between the 1986 release of “Off The Beaten Track” and its immediate predecessor 1983’s “Drastic Season”, African Head Charge had been moulded into a live blood-pumping band by its main man Bonjo lyabinghi Noah, who had truly come out of the shadows where percussion usually resides, fuelled by a righteous desire to occupy that front-of-stage position. Also during that time producer Adrian Sherwood had volunteered to be fed through the funk-mangle by Messrs.

(Skip) McDonald, (Doug) Wimbish and (Keith) Le Blanc, had come out the other end more disciplined and focused on what fresh sounds might be possibly created through the blatant use and abuse of state of the art technology, where he had previously generated samples as a “captured sound” by-product of the studio hardware or bled all over the old Studer decks as a result of a thousand razored edits. The result of this “great leap forward” was the fourth actual, but first “modern”, African Head Charge album – “Off The Beaten Track” – which sounded like nothing else around at the time, and whose combination of fat beats and ethnic chants was to provide the template, which many lesser lights were to attempt to emulate over the ensuing years.

Compared to previous efforts the "new" AHC rhythms were less abstract and more direct, with continuous and flowing percussion lines and more managed tempo shifts. The application of loops and samples of increased time duration made all the difference when combined with the more fluid and confident approach of the musicians involved in the build of the tracks. Sherwood shows up once more under his by now redundant guise as "The Prisoner". Skip McDonald makes an early non-funk entry and the reappearance of Jah Wobble makes clear his creative commitment to his old friends at On-U. But most remarkably, and making his debut as a recording artist, is the twentieth centuries most radical scientist - the super-cool Albert Einstein, laying down a sweet rap with the most conscious of lyrics in "Language And Mentality". Of course, Albert was in the studio in spirit only and the exercise, to my knowledge, has never been repeated.
The title “Off The Beaten Track” was not just an example of a great piece of wordplay, but also incredibly apt as the music was not only a departure for On-U Sound, but also a landmark album for what was to become the whole new ethno-beat strand within the commercial category of what we now know as “World Music”. – Steve Barker