I’m tired, I’m confused, I’m dirty and I’m hungry, and five yards away my girlfriend is trying to sleep… Guess I better review these demos, then.
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Reviews
Various Artists – Ghana Special
Various Artists / Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-81
Soundway
After Ghana achieved independence from Britain in 1957 it gradually moved into a period of relative affluence. The clubs and night spots of the post-colonial Gold Coast reflected the changes with the spread of the feel-good Afro music Highlife, and then later Palm-wine.
This fine compilation provides a great introduction to the boom time musical climate of the country before the economic collapse of the 1980s. Much is made of the vibrancy of Highlife and that’s probably down to its rich base of sources, including colonial brass bands and Liberian rhythm sections to Ashiko and Gombe - basically musical forms practised by freed Maroon slaves from Jamaica and handed down through the generations - from Sierra Leone.
There’s certainly something of the music classroom cupboard eclecticism to some Highlife, given that it utilises a refreshing mix of bongos, violins, maracas, guitars as well as traditional orchestra instruments. And a colourful culture was replete with colourful characters. The City Boys Band (represented here by the 1976 cut ‘Nya Asem Hwe’) was fronted by J A Odofo, who was known locally as The Black Chinese; something that he obviously approved of given that he was constantly dressed in an extravagant interpretation of Maoist Chinese dress.
The comp, like its beautiful sister, Nigeria Special, thankfully has a slight bias towards the dancefloor-friendly and funky. One could be forgiven for thinking that they were listening to the JBs transplanted to early 1970s Ghana upon hearing The Big Beats’ ‘Mi Nsumboo Bo Donn’. In fact, the group were signed to Polydor for a short time, the home of Soul Brother Number One, Mr James Brown, who can’t have failed to have heard his stablemates’ stuttering New Orleans style back beat Afrofunk.
One of the stand out tracks here is the blazing ‘Obi Agye Me Dofo’ by Vis A Vis from 1978. It really captures the rattlebag, progressive nature of this music featuring cheeky synth squelches, a guitar line that could be an African cousin to The Amboy Dukes’ ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ and a Rocksteady Tommy McCook-style Trench Town groove.
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