The return of African Head Charge is as uplifting and sonically adventurous as ever – led by master percussionist and vocalist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and close friend Adrian Sherwood at the controls.

A Trip To Bolgatanga – named after Bonjo’s current home town in Ghana – is the first album that the duo have worked on since 2011. Lead single, A Bad Attitude, has featured twice on World Treasures Music shows on Alto Radio and is one of the highlights of the year so far.

A Bad Attitude features one of Ghana’s foremost kologo players King Ayisoba, who provides the distinctive sound of the West African lute, as well as his unique vocals, leading the griot groove and group shouts.

Sherwood says this is their best yet, even better than My Life In A Hole In The Ground, which is now regarded as a seminal classic. “It’s always a case of getting all the right ingredients sorted for Head Charge, and then having some fun with overdubs and mixing and getting it completely perfect. We always work well together, but I think on this one we have the greatest result.”

Bonjo grew up in a Rasta camp in the hills of Clarendon, Jamaica, where his grand-aunt was a Rasta queen. Taken under the wing of high priest, Reverend Claudius Henry, Bonjo was introduced to Nyabinghi drumming, aged six or seven. Possessed by percussion, he also picked up techniques, primarily Kumina, from a local Poco church, run by Mother Hibbert, a relative of The Maytals’ Toots.

Bonjo relocated to London when he was 16-years-old and he picked up work roadie-ing for artists including Desmond Dekker and Dandy Livingstone. Demonstrating his trance-inducing chops on the congas, while setting up, eventually saw him sitting in on gigs. He would also sing backing harmonies for Dekker.

Sherwood has recorded with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Horace Andy, Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, Cabaret Voltaire, Nine Inch Nails, The Fall, Turner prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, Pinch, Vivien Goldman, Ari Up of The Slits and Mark Stewart. He has also collaborated with Brian Eno.

Buy the LP here.