by Álvaro Molina (@alvaromolinare)
On A Trip To Bolgatanga, African Head Charge’s first new album in twelve years, lies a multicoloured vision of psychedelic textures, sounds, and surely, a deep mystification of the outer realms of dub and reggae. Active since the early 1980s in the UK, the band encapsulates the spiritual drumming of percussion-meister Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and producer Adrian Sherwood’s philosophy, one that’s built around the embrace of musical collectives freed from any conventional structure of what electronic, dub and reggae were supposed to be. The dub-meets-post-punk sensibility led Sherwood and his troupe of like-minded buccaneers to start the On-U Sound label at the very beginning of the 1980s, when Thatcherism clashed with the countercultures of electronica, reggae and, of course, the new branches emerging from the post-punk underground.
The anything goes nature of On-U strikes again with A Trip To Bolgatanga, a kaleidoscopic travelogue of heavy hitters weaved around upbeat electronica, modern highlife, vintage Ghanaian blues, banging drums and a voodoo spirit possessing the experimental deep dub, reggae and dancehall rhythms. Being one of the longest-serving acts on the On-U roster, African Head Charge (AHC) have envisioned some of the most groundbreaking records released by the label, including My Life As A Hole In The Ground (1981) and masterpiece Songs of Praise (1980). The music revolves around a melting pot of global influences, ranging from traditional Jamaican and African spiritual chants to experimental electronica, influenced by the avant-garde visions of Sherwood and the forward thinking of artists like Mark Stewart (The Pop Group), Ari Up (The Slits) or Prince Far I.
This freeform approach gets its own spotlight on A Trip To Bolgatanga with the raw fusion between echoing dubs, sinister melodies and a showcase of modern highlife in Ghana. “Accra Electronica” stands as an upbeat sonic portrait of a swaggering millennium youth, with glitzy dancehall rhythms and rolling layers of electronics travelling from the Ghanaian capital city into the wild savannahs. “Push Me Pull You” and “I Chant Too” bring closer attention to AHC’s core experimentations without becoming too cerebral; spiritual chanting, stepping percussions and haunted stacks of synths.
Front and centre in the AHC sound, though, it’s always the Nyabinghi drumming of Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, a technique he picked up and was possessed with when living in a Rasta camp in the hills of Clarendon, Jamaica. After establishing himself in the UK for decades and flourishing under the On-U label and playing in festivals all over Europe, recently Bonjo I and his family made Ghana their home. During this time, he started meeting and learning from new drummers coming from all over the Ghanaian tribes, including the Fante, the Akim, the Ga, and the Bolgatanga.
Bolgatanga is a town located in the Upper East Region of Ghana. A mostly hot and humid place, surrounded by savannahs and traditional villages of rounded huts with thatched conical roofs. The town of “Bolga,” as it is sometimes called, houses a wide range of craft artists of the Frafra people, working basketry, pottery and leatherwork, all centred around the city’s vivid market and museums.
Here is where Bonjo I has found a set of fresh collaborators that happily step in to add a flavorful palette of traditional sounds. Tracks like album opener “A Bad Attitude” features mighty Ghanaian musician King Ayisoba, who provides his trademark gruff and raucous vocals and a unique mastery of the kologo, a traditional lute from West African culture. “Asalatua,” “Never Regret A Day,” and “Microdosing'' deliver a guided tour through busy main streets, sweaty and colorful markets filled with mystic shapes and rowdy chants supported by highlife woodwinds, dubby reverberation and sticky layers of old-fashioned afro-blues.
In a recent interview, Bonjo I said of A Trip To Bolgatanga: “It’s like cooking, when you’re blending all of the elements, like yam, banana, pumpkin, and the end taste, that’s where it matters. That’s how I look at music. Throw a lot of things together, and then you taste it and say, ‘Yeah man, that tastes good. Yeah man, that sounds good’”. At the very heart of African Head Charge lies this untouched enthusiasm that’s been there since the early 1980s; a driving creative force injected with a “strength by numbers” philosophy and an openness for musical curiosity. Arriving at a post-Brexit and neo-conservative time in the UK, where this approach may seem confrontational, A Trip To Bolgatanga pops its voodoo head and screams: “A bad attitude is like a flat tire! You can’t go anywhere!”.