And the first shall be last and the last shall be first ..... and so it is that the debut album from African Head Charge is the final set from the band to be released in this series of On-U Master Recordings. On the streets in late 1981 "My life in a Hole in the Ground" paid direct, if somewhat disrespectful, tribute to the groundbreaking "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", the collaboration by Brian Eno and Talking Head David Byrne which had emerged earlier in the year on the ever-so-arty E.G.Records, home of early secons-wave ambience. Although both the technical and creative impact of the Eno/Byrne work was felt immediately on those who where listening, any penetration to a wider market was delayed and eventually dispersed by those artists who inevitably fell under its influence.

On the one hand Eno's "vision of a psychedelic Africa" was an elevating concept at the time, but putting it into practice "in a hole in the ground" was to provide the challenge to Bonjo Iyanbinghi Noah and producer Adrian Sherwood. The "hole in the ground" referred to Berry Street Studios in the City of London, an establishment accessed off-street and down a flight stairs. The studios were in possession of particular ambiences and resonances popular with the producer at the time, but also the basic rest and recreational facilities offered little for the late night worker.

"My Life in a Hole in the Ground" can now be viewed as an experimental work in that it was a search for a fresh musical template for the then virtual band African Head Charge. At the time it was made, and certainly more prosaic than the grander sounding term experimental, it was a case of "what next?", "how about trying this?" or "will this work?". Studio time was precious and samplers, even in theit most rudimentary from, had not yet arrived in commercial studios. The introduction of pre-captured sound had to be managed by the use of precious channels or the mind-numbingly tedious process of multi-edits. So we find Adrian, Bonjo and the usual On-U suspects of the time playing with fairly free-form rhythm creation based on the tenets of reggae - drum and bass makes the space. On this bed Bonjo was then free to develop precussion patterns and breaks, whilst contributions from the likes of Deadly Headley and Doctor Pablo filled in the requirements for colouration.

"Stone Charge", featuring some cooly-mangled saxophone work from Deadly Headley, could almost come from the gospel era of sixties free-jazz player Albert Ayler. The vocals on "Far Away Chant" are credited to King Cry Cry, the early chosen name of Sherwood's mentor Jamaican D.J. Prince Far I; the tune was used to gruesome effect by film director David Lynch in his perverse road movie "Wild at Heart", where the track plays under the movie's torture scene in a stripped-down version with the slurred chant spookily slowed down over a stark drum, bass and percussion framework.

Even the usually mega-wacky David Lynch knows where to draw the line as this version of the tune was not used on the film's commercial soundtrack release where it would have kept company with the likes of Glenn Miller and Gene Vincent! "Stebeni's Theme" features the vocals of an African nurse who was in fact the Stebeni, a friend of Bonjo who ran a sweet line in vocal deliveries of traditional tunes.

These days Bonjo Splits his time between the U.K. and Africa, but mostly he can be found in Ghana where he is in the process of completing a small beach-side housing compound for himself and his ever-increasing family. It is fitting that he is to make Ghana his new home, in an act of self-managed repatriation, as the country accords its musicians due respect and status, especially the master percussion - of which Bonjo is certainly one.

Steve Barker, On The Wire, June 1998.