VA - Electric Highlife ~ Sessions from the Bokoor Studios

recordings by John Collins

01. Ensuah Nzema Kotoko - Kenya'S Guitar Band [The Riches Big Band]
02. Osikuni Atamfo [Gossiper Enemies] - Guyoyo Guitar Band
03. Tsutsu Tsosemo [Old Time Training] Desmond Ababio & the Black Beats
04. Mewu Mo Dzi [I'm Looking On High] - Eddie Ansah Guitar Band
05. Memia [I Am Too Broke] - Kenya'S Guitar Band (The Riches Big Band)
06. Obia Ba Nnye [Naughty Child] - George Adu Guitar Band
07. Madame Zehae Ala [Just As I Am] Kenya'S Guitar Band [The Riches Big Band]
08. If One Person Doesn't Know, Another Will Tell Him or Her - George Adu Guitar Band
09. Yaka Duru [Liberian Folktune] - Bokoor Guitar Band
10. Sosu Sei Me [Limit The Way You Spoil Me] - Happy Star Guitar Band
11. Friends Today, Enemies Tomorrow - Jimmy Beckly & Beach Scorpions
12. Niawu Be Ye [Sow & Reap] - Happy Star Guitar Band
13. Jealousy - Jimmy Beckly & Beach Scorpions



'A really splendid set of mellow Ghanaian highlife music. Although these tracks were recorded in the early 1980s, they have the warm, relaxed feel of classic material from the '60s... Maybe at the time the folks at the independent Bokoor label were a little out of step with the move towards glossy Afro-pop that emanated out from Paris, but hey... more power to them! I like this stuff a lot better! if you love the beautiful, chiming, high-register electric guitar sounds of highlife and other forms of African music (such as "Twist" music from Kenya), this collection will not dissapoint. The production is primitive and at certain points you can actually hear crickets chirping in the background (cool!). However, the performances are stellar across the board with wonderful vocal harmonies, driving percussion, and, of course, those heavenly sounding electric guitars. This is authentic, un-messed-with African music that hasn't been altered to suit mainstream western tastes. Yet, it's still accessable to anyone with even a remotely open mind.' - a customer

'...my favorite recent reissue from Anglophone West Africa is Electric Highlife: Sessions From the Bokoor Studios, on Naxos World. Highlife was the name long ago attached to Western-influenced Ghanaian dance music by people who couldn't afford to get in, and musically it's always been protean. The East Nigerian specimens on the Oriental Brothers' classic Heavy on the Highlife! go on like Fela songs, but most tracks here are in Afropop's typical six-minute range. All were recorded by John Collins, a Ghanaian-born white who was also one of the first to write about African music, but where the artists on Nigeria 70 tend to show up in the reference books, these aren't even in Collins's own Musicmakers of West Africa. The brief trots reveal such familiar Afropop themes as 'My enemies wish to disgrace me/But because of God's grace this won't ever happen' and 'In olden times people trained their children well so that they became responsible people/These days such training is scarce.' And yet I find all 13 tracks cheerful and inspirational, tuneful & rhythmically engaging' ~ robert christgau

in my world i need uplifting musique constantly & this one works wonders. the lyrical themes are universal & totally timeless; chit talkin, baque stabbin, haters hatin, jealousy, poverty, disrespecting your heritage, hope, surrender... friends today, enemies tomorrow. these cats were keepin it 100% real. 320 good things