Various Artists – Ghana Soundz:
Afro-Beat, Funk And Fusion In 70’s Ghana (2002)
Soundway Records (SNDWY 001)
I have been sitting on sharing this one for a long time, waiting and putting it off until I had the inspiration to write something sufficiently flabbergasted about it. But now that I just heard, due to my sleeplessness leading me to an online newspaper, that Ghana had a victorious World Cup game today (Saturday), I feel I can`t hold back any more. No pithy remarks or deconstruction of the music this time. I don’t even really care about the World’s Cup – it’s just not in my blood, I guess you could say. But I am really happy to hear about Ghana’s win.
This disc was the first of many wonderful compilations from Englands’s Soundway Records. While in terms of packaging and notes, Soundway would only continue to get better and better over these last years, the music pretty much sets the template of what we can expect from any of their releases – rare grooves, truly creative arrangements and instrumentation, and for the most part excellent sound quality. Some of my personal favorites here are the tracks from Ebo Taylor, Oscar Sulley and the Uhuru Jazz Band, the Honny and the Bees Band, and especially K.Frimpong and his Cubano Fiestas who kick out a smoldering deep groove and then four minutes in blow my mind with a beautifully melodic versus replete with harmonies that crescendo into .. .more smoldering grooving. Just when I think they can’t do anything else to surprise me, they end the song with a bloody Moog solo, and then my head explodes in time with my shuffling feet. I can’t swear on it, since it is three in the morning and I would be sleeping if I could, but this might be my favorite cut of them all. Though the Apagya Show Band that follows them with more scintillating scorch marks on my eardrums follows pretty closely. Actually there is quite a bit more analog-synthesizer freakness on this collection which tickles me tenderly in the places that matter, more than I am used to hearing on this type of material.
At this point in my time on earth, what I once thought to be impossible has begun to occur – I am beginning to tire of James Brown known-offs, particularly because there seems to be no particular bottom to that barrel that is still being scraped and most probably always will be. There, I said it. I won’t name names but there are one or two tunes on this that I can just as easily pass over, even though they are still pretty good.
Ghana Sounds – Ghana Soundz – Afro-Beat, Funk And Fusion In 70’s Ghana (2002) in 320 kbs em pee tree (PLEASE STAND BY… I seem to have lost this link from months and months ago..)
Ghana Soundz – Afro-Beat, Funk And Fusion In 70’s Ghana (2002) in FLAC LOSSLESS AUDIO
password – senha in comments if needed