Adrian Sherwood, uber-producer, mixmaster and mastermind of On-U Sound, the label that carved out a significant new chapter in the history of British dub and reggae in the 1980s, can be proud of a glittering discography. But nothing shines as brightly as African Headcharge, the group that arrived with the force of a meteorite and has lost none of its otherworldly status in the intervening years. Although we live in an age where all kinds of mash-ups are commonplace few rival the collision of dub, free jazz and electronica patented by AHC, which came together when Sherwood joined forces with percussionist Bonjo Noah, who had studied with the legendary Rastafarian bandleader Count Ossie at Wareika in Jamaica. With sundry guest players coming in and out of the studio an ever- evolving workshop got underway but the resulting vocabulary cohered. While the rustling undergrowths of sound that Noah produces from his various hand drums are a major component of the music it is the steamy jungle created when these are combined with Sherwood’s clenched beats, darting horn motifs and gurgles of bass that makes the tracks deeply hypnotic. AHC was weighty but touched with echo chamber levity. Of their four albums nothing quite matches the magnificence of My Life In A Hole In The Ground but Off The Beaten Track, the group’s valedictory set that featured Jah Wobble among others, was a fearless new seedbed of sampling and real-time playing. While the ghost of Sun Ra floats playfully over AHC the noirishly funky spectres of Miles and 23 Skidoo are also nearby, though Sherwood and co ingeniously distill the more improvisatory flourish of the former into a much more hermetic creative space where a single drum beat or brass reverb acquires the power of a whole chorus because of the great richness of the other elements to which it is so tightly locked.

The influence of AHC can’t be overstated and while the lesser- known Eardrum spring to mind among a long list of interesting scions one might also mention anybody from Polar Bear to Sons Of Kemet and Melt Yourself Down.