Their initial work together produced the songs "Under My Nose" and "Darn (Cold Way O' Lovin')", both included on the album, but believing them to be too stylistically orthodox, the duo pursued a more distinctive sound for the remaining material.

In the late 1990s, electronic musician Jamie Lidell began sharing a studio in Brighton with Chilean minimal techno producer Cristián Vogel after they discovered they admired one another's music.

[3] Another work-in-progress, "Darn (Cold Way O' Lovin)", remained an instrumental until Lidell added vocals one night which he had recorded a year earlier for a live show in Vogel's Brighton club Defunkt.

[3] Pairing Lidell's vocal with a funk style at a house tempo, "Darn (Cold Way O' Lovin') was released in 1998 as the first Super_Collider single alongside a remix by DJ Harvey, and was lauded by both critics and DJs.

Head On is an album of experimental,[6] "skewed" dance-pop material,[5] comprising songs which mash up "P-funk and Prince-styled vocals into an electro-shedder similar to the one employed by Autechre and Oval," according to critic John Bush.

[5] While central to the sound are unusual funk grooves, melodies and Lidell's soulful vocals, the record's unique techno production, combining surreal sound textures, fitful drum programming and 'murky' sub-bass tones, result in what critic M. Tye Comer described as "a mutant strain of music that embraces P-Funk, house and techno without subscribing to the rules of any pre-existing genre.

[7] "Cut the Phone" is a fusion of cut-up R&B and keyboards,[8] while "Darn (Cold Way O' Lovin)" features soulful vocals largely repeating the title while low-end "tech-basslines" weave in and out of the track and switching between left and right channels.

"[5] Described by Reynolds as "robo-Cameo" due to its synthesised slap bass sounds,[7] "Take Me Home" is a rhythmic soul song with similarities to Prince.

"[7] With artwork by Red Design and incorporating photography from Ben Cowlin,[4] the album cover features a composite conflation of Vogel and Lidell's heads, pasted from "scores of digital flakes.

[3] In February 2000, Melody Maker included Head On a list of "the most unpopular records," based on reports of albums sold to second-hand shops.

[1][11] Simon Reynolds of Spin felt the album picks up "where Zapp's 'More Bounce to the Ounce' and George Clinton's 'Atomic Dog' left off–the era of dance music when trad musicianship crashed head-on into futurism."

He praised the album's inventive sound and concluded that, unlike other bands, Super_Collider proved they "have a perfect grasp on funk's uncanny merger of supple and stiff, loose and tight."

"[7] In a positive review, M. Tye Comer of CMJ New Music Monthly described Head On as "[a] very strange and titillating release," writing that it "lives up to every connotation of the word 'experimental'."

He commented: "True, there's a lot to digest -- and perhaps a bit too much production in several spots -- for a collection of 'pop' songs, but fans of the Skam label and the Mask series will eat this stuff up.

"[15] In a 2005 interview with Pitchfork, Lidell reflected upon Head On fondly as an "innovative" and "mindblowing" album, describing it as "a big wake-up call to a lot of people.