African Head Charge:
My Life in a Hole in the Ground:
Environmental Studies:
Drastic Season:
Off the Beaten Track:
On-u Sound:
LP:
Out Now:
Of all the On-U Sound roster, the African Head Charge project was perhaps the most left-field and sonically challenging. Neither reggae nor world-music, yet inspired by both, Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah's sprawling template encompasses sounds you've heard before and others you'll never hear again. Dubbed-up psychedelic skunk-Afrique, anyone? With Adrian Sherwood at the controls, you can be guaranteed an aural rollercoaster ride throughout these four remastered and repressed vinyl reissues.
Debut My Life in a Hole in the Ground - ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - sounds like it was made last week. Completely devoid of any hooks or memorable basslines, tracks such as Elastic Dance and Stebeni's Theme are playful excursions into African chanting nestling alongside some speaker-scaring basslines, while Crocodile Shoes and Stone Charge recall early 23 Skidoo or Defunkt. For David Lynch fans, there's the mind-mangling Far Away Chant that was used in his Wild at Heart epic while the nearest thing to anything remotely catchy is the hyper-tense The Race.
Environmental Studies - ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - draws input from natural found-sounds, as well as the trademark heavy percussion, wall-cracking basslines and echo, phasing and other effects so often betrothed by Sherwood. Beri Beri and High Protein Snack offer up some sax-drenched psychedelia and Primitive judders and shudders its resonating way from ear to ear in typical African Head Charge manner.
Even more 'out there' is Drastic Season - ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - which basically has the dub strangled out of it, swung around its head, thrown completely off axis and then reinstalled as some sort of hi-fi test disc. Bazaar is, well, bizarre with layers and layers of fidgety phased-up bucket-drums, boom-boom-boom bass and mauled vocal/guitar samples, and Snake in the Hole is five minutes of jackhammer kick-drums and toy organ stabs that are enough to scare the shit out of your Sony* (*other makers of normally reliable HD equipment are available).
Perhaps more indicative of On-U's later syndrum sound is AHC's fourth set, Off the Beaten Track - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ . It's certainly the most direct album of this quartet with Throw it Away and the title-track almost danceable, though still firmly rooted in experimentalism and dub.
All four are definitely worth procuring although I'd aim you towards the first three for the most rewarding challenging listens.
My Life in a Hole in the Ground:
Environmental Studies:
Drastic Season:
Off the Beaten Track:
On-u Sound:
LP:
Out Now:
Debut My Life in a Hole in the Ground - ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - sounds like it was made last week. Completely devoid of any hooks or memorable basslines, tracks such as Elastic Dance and Stebeni's Theme are playful excursions into African chanting nestling alongside some speaker-scaring basslines, while Crocodile Shoes and Stone Charge recall early 23 Skidoo or Defunkt. For David Lynch fans, there's the mind-mangling Far Away Chant that was used in his Wild at Heart epic while the nearest thing to anything remotely catchy is the hyper-tense The Race.
Even more 'out there' is Drastic Season - ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - which basically has the dub strangled out of it, swung around its head, thrown completely off axis and then reinstalled as some sort of hi-fi test disc. Bazaar is, well, bizarre with layers and layers of fidgety phased-up bucket-drums, boom-boom-boom bass and mauled vocal/guitar samples, and Snake in the Hole is five minutes of jackhammer kick-drums and toy organ stabs that are enough to scare the shit out of your Sony* (*other makers of normally reliable HD equipment are available).
Perhaps more indicative of On-U's later syndrum sound is AHC's fourth set, Off the Beaten Track - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ . It's certainly the most direct album of this quartet with Throw it Away and the title-track almost danceable, though still firmly rooted in experimentalism and dub.
All four are definitely worth procuring although I'd aim you towards the first three for the most rewarding challenging listens.