African Head Charge - Voodoo Of The Godsent (2LP)

African Head Charge records have always felt like secret rooms inside the house of dub, and Voodoo Of The Godsent is one of those rooms you keep returning to because the air feels different in there. Released in 2011 on On-U Sound, it pairs Adrian Sherwood’s mischievous, hands-on studio sorcery with Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah’s deep well of percussion and spiritual pulse. The group’s legend rests on a very specific collision of cultures, and this album sticks to that core idea while sounding leaner and surprisingly lithe, like a seasoned sound system crew stepping back into the yard with new tricks.

Sherwood has said the original African Head Charge concept was to imagine a psychedelic Africa through dub. You can hear that mission continue here, but it is not nostalgia. The low end stays rooted in Jamaican sound system tradition, yet the surface is busy with hand drums, bells, and vocal fragments that suggest ceremonies rather than songs. Bonjo’s approach to nyabinghi-derived rhythms remains the anchor. He does not simply decorate the beat, he leads it, and Sherwood builds a weather system around him with tape echo, spring reverb, and sly edits that keep the ground shifting. It is the sort of production where a rimshot might bloom into a cloud and a single chant might ricochet into the distance, but the groove never loses its footing.

What makes Voodoo Of The Godsent such a satisfying listen is how it balances trance and detail. The tempos are mostly mid-paced steppers, tough enough to rattle a small venue, yet the mix gives each instrument space to breathe. You catch these small moments, a finger slide on a guitar string, a ghosted snare, a breath before a chorus of voices arrives, and then the bass reminds you why people still seek out a proper cut of African Head Charge vinyl. It is music that rewards close listening at home and also begs for a stack of speakers and a friendly engineer who knows when to ride the filters.

Placed in the group’s timeline, this record arrived after a six-year break from 2005’s Vision Of A Psychedelic Africa, and it feels like a recommitment to the project’s essence. The choral sampling and devotional haze that defined the early 90s era are still present in spirit, but the 2011 production has a cleaner edge. There is less fog, more punch, a sense that Sherwood enjoyed tightening the screws without losing the ritual energy that fans crave. If you have followed On-U Sound from the early days, you will catch familiar fingerprints, that cheeky dub science where the mixing desk behaves like an instrument, always ready to bend time for a bar or two.

The aura of the album is devotional without being pious. Titles and artwork nod to ceremony, but the mood is inclusive and physical. This is music that makes you stand taller without telling you what to believe. It is no surprise the record has become a quiet favorite among crate diggers who want something heavy that does not flatten the room. When people search for Voodoo Of The Godsent vinyl, they are often chasing that feeling of movement and meditation coexisting on a single side.

If you are building a shelf and want the arc of the band’s story in a few pieces, pair this with Songs Of Praise for the early choral mysticism and Vision Of A Psychedelic Africa for the expansive mid-period charge. Then let Voodoo Of The Godsent show how gracefully the idea aged into the 2010s. There is a reason African Head Charge albums on vinyl continue to find new listeners. The records still sound like nothing else, and the production holds up on modern systems, from headphones to a battered shop deck. I have seen more than one Melbourne record store staffer slide this across the counter to a curious browser with a simple nod. That is usually all it takes.

For collectors, it is an easy recommendation. If you like to buy African Head Charge records online, keep an eye out for clean On-U Sound pressings, since the low end shines with a little headroom. Even in a pile of new arrivals, this one has a presence that pulls you in. Spin it when the room needs grounding or when you want to shift the night into that slower, deeper gear. It is a late-period highlight from a group that treats the studio as an instrument and rhythm as a shared language, and it still feels alive each time the needle drops.