Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93, by Various Artists

Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93

by Various Artists

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Gatefold triple vinyl with detailed 24-page booklet

Includes digital pre-order of Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

shipping out on or around May 10, 2024

Purchasable with gift card

£25.99 GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Double CD with 24-page booklet

Includes digital pre-order of Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

shipping out on or around May 10, 2024

Purchasable with gift card

£8.99 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Pre-order of Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Purchasable with gift card

releases May 10, 2024

£8.99 GBP or more

1.	The Godfathers - Ebe Ye Yie Ni
2.	Pat Thomas - Gye Wani 05:23	buy track
3.	Pepper, Onion, Ginger & Salt - M.C. Mambo
4.	Andy Vans - Adjoa Amisa
5.	George Darko - Kaakyire Nua
6.	Rex Gyamfi - Obiara Bewu
7.	Starlite - Anoma Koro
8.	Abdul Raheem - Alaiye
9.	Jon K - Asafo
10.	Kwasi Afari Minta - Barima Nsu
11.	Marijata (feat. Ata Kak) - Otanhunu 07:33	buy track
12.	Gyedu Blay Ambolley - Apple
13.	Dadadi - Jigi Jigi
14.	Charles Amoah - Fre Me (Call Me)
15.	Ernest Honny - New Dance
16.	Bessa Simons - Sii Nana
17.	Nan Mayen - Mumude
18.	Nana Budjei - Asobrachie

about

In the early 1980s, a particular alchemy between new musical technologies and significant social, cultural, and political transformations in Ghana gave rise to a new style of highlife. Drum machines and synthesisers appeared alongside lilting guitar lines and punchy horns, and the emerging Ghanaian diaspora began incorporating US disco and boogie, R&B, European new wave, and Caribbean zouk and soca into their music.

This style soundtracked the birth of a new, proud Ghanaian identity and captured the idiosyncrasies of a rapidly changing postcolonial society, marked by increased migration and wider access to global sounds and modern technology.

More than 20 years after the release of the heavy funk and Afrobeat-focused Ghana Soundz compilations, and following the success of 2009’s Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981, Soundway is now shining the spotlight on the multifaceted, diasporic sounds of the ‘80s on new compilation Ghana Special - Volume 2, a collection of 18 burger highlife, electronic afrobeat, and reggae tracks.

Though Ghanaian to its very core, burger highlife emerged mostly outside of Ghana and just as the sun was setting on the country’s musical golden age. In the 1960s and 1970s cities such as Accra, Tema, Takoradi, and Cape Coast were home to thriving music scenes, and the loud horn sections of the big highlife bands, or the simpler, socially conscious palm wine music ruled the dance halls, locals drinkeries, and airwaves.

Back then music represented a powerful force, and an artist’s endorsement or dissent could make or break a politician. Perhaps to curb this power, the incoming military regime-imposed curfews and substantial import taxes on musical instruments in the early 1980s. These measures, coupled with a profound economic downturn and shifting musical preferences that saw DJs replacing large live bands, served as the final blow to Ghana's once-thriving music scene.

Musicians left Ghana in droves, scattering across West Africa, Europe, and North America. Thanks in part to its more permissive migration policies Germany became the heart of this scene, and the movement in fact takes its name from “Bürger”, the German for “citizen”. Less confined by genres than back in Ghana, artists in the diaspora were quick to engage with the different styles, working disco, boogie, and funk into their highlife melodies. Access to state-of-the-art studios and modern musical technologies also gave birth to all sorts of mutations: burger highlife in fact is less defined by one particular sound, than by the experimental approach and global outlook of its artists.

Tracks such as Ernest Honny’s experimental cut “New Dance” are an example of just how far artists strayed from original highlife arrangements. Honny, who started his career as a keyboard player with Dr K Gyasi’s band The Noble Kings, had moved to Benin in the 1980s, where he experimented with synthesisers and drum machines at one of Cotonou’s top studios. Similarly, Nan Mayen’s “Mumude” is a slick, 80’s pop track which was recorded in Germany, with only a slight echo of highlife in its opening Fanti lyrics.
This generation of artists found inspiration in sounds that transcended geographical boundaries: singer and guitarist Nana Budjei, who was originally from central Ghana but had moved to the UK in the 1980s, says that his radiant, sun-drenched 1988 track “Asobrachie” is “influenced by reggae maestros Bob Marley and Alpha Blondy, and traditional Akan folklore music”; on “Jigi Jigi”, the Kumasi-born, Sweden transplant Delips Apo draws on soca, latin, and zouk influences.

Throughout the 1980s Ghanaian artists kept producing increasingly innovative and experimental hybrids, winning over new audiences abroad. Though back in Ghana the new sound was initially met with disapproval by purists, it slowly became a symbol of a new, worldly and modern Ghanaian identity. The creativity and open mindedness that characterised burger highlife have gone on to shape the evolution of Ghanaian music since, giving artists the freedom to explore new global sounds while preserving a proudly Ghanaian soul. Ghana Special - Volume 2 stands as a vibrant tribute to the lasting legacy of this groundbreaking musical era.

credits

releases May 10, 2024

Restoration, Mastering: Dan Elleson
Lacquers: Frank Merritt, The Carvery
Artwork: Lewis Heriz and Meurig Rees

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about

Soundway Records UK

Since its inception in 2002, independent label Soundway Records has unearthed coveted musical gems from far-flung corners of the world, with foundations that are rooted in meticulously sourced reissues.

No matter where each Soundway release touches down, the imprint’s passion for carefully shining a light on culturally significant genres and scenes remains unwavering. ... more

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