There's a resolutely uncommercial streak to the music of African Head Charge. The seminal collective, featuring founding member Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and On-U Sound impressario Adrian Sherwood, is back. And while their sound remains as iconoclastic as ever, on this new 2023 offering, A Trip to Bolgatanga, long-time fans may feel like things are pretty accessible.
All that being said, this is dense music still. Opener "A Bad Attitude" is nimble, Afro-pop, while "I Chant Too" is a murky gem. Waves of rhythms, drum samples, and vocals intertwine here to seduce. Elsewhere, the spry "I'm A Winner" skips and leaps along its melodic-line, while the lovely title track mixes horns, kalimba (?), and piano hooks to create a soundscape every bit as enticing as those Sherwood and crew worked up decades ago. "Never Regret a Day" is all Bonjo's show to lead. The number is like something from Fela, though this has the rhythmic underpinnings of the best material from African Head Charge in the late Eighties.
A Trip to Bolgatanga isn't going to melt your brain the way older African Head Charge releases did, but it will soothe your soul. The beats and hooks here are every bit as inspired as those of the classic AHC records, but we're all older now and these musicians here (Doug Wimbush, Skip McDonald, and other familiar names) favor a directness that is hopefully going to bring in new fans. I can dig that.
A Trip to Bolgatanga by African Head Charge is out now via On-U Sound.
[Photo: On-U Sound]