African Head Charge collects different elements of world music and combines them with a Western sensibility -- but rather than changing them into pop songs the way
Peter Gabriel or
Jah Wobble might, they work with dub, trippy psychedelia, and trance. The result is spectacular, lending a more organic, song-based feel to the sort of peaceful electronica one would expect from
Spring Heel Jack or
Mouse on Mars. The dub and reggae influences make the album even more appealing -- "Animal Law" is like electronic dub, and the title track, "Somebody Touch I" is a bright and almost cutesy take on dub and reggae. In any genre, dub, trance, electronica, or world music, In Pursuit of the Shashamane Land would stand up as a spectacular album.