• 
  KG Omulo: Ayah Ye!: Moving Train
  
  A synergy of funk, rock, reggae and traditional African sounds from this inventive, young singer/songwriter.
• 
  Various Artists: Chief Boima Presents: Lone Stars - Hipco and Gbema
  
  
• 
  Mamadou Diabaté: Courage
  
  Mamadou Diabate, the kora master, takes a fresh look at Mali instrumental music with his new CD Courage.
• 
  Various Artists: The Kankobela of the Batonga, Vol. 2
  
  Mysterious melodies from a disappearing thumb piano tradition of Southern Africa.
• 
  Kiran Ahluwalia: Aam Zameen: Common Ground
  
  Indo-Canadian Songwriter Combines Folk Poetry with African Rock, Jazz and more
• 
  M.anifest: Immigrant Chronicles: Coming to America
  
  
• 
  Sona Jobarteh: FASIYA
  
  West African female kora virtuoso releases an album full of grace, warmth, and passion.
• 
  Sia Tolno: My Life
  
  Kissi singer releases a strong second album full of pop-infused star power over songs of strife and triumph.
• 
  Zieti: Zemelewa
  
  Eclectic blend of Afro-infused pop out of Cote d'Ivoire.
• 
  Guelewar: Halleli N Dakarou
  
  Re-released and remastered live CD from this 80's experimental Senegambian outfit.
• 
  Tinariwen: Tassili
  
  Touareg desert legends return with an offering that is meandering, sorrowful and proud.
• 
  Los Rakas: Chancletas y Camisetas Bordada
  
  Oakland/Panamanian rappers -call it "Panabay"-- return with good results.
• 
  Cheikh Lo: Jamm
  
  The unique Senegalese singer and multi-instrumentalist crafts an eclectically excellent record.
• 
  David Rudder: Random Notes
  
  Calypsonian David Rudder returns with an album that covers various styles with excellent results.

All Reviews >>

A chatterbox weave of cycling guitar riffs and racing drums and percussion tumbles forth. A high lead vocal slices the air with soul-charged precision answered by a looser, more low-key chorus. Right away, you want to dance. This is what highlife is supposed to sound like! The band is F. Kenya's Guitar Band (The Riches Big Sound), and the recording comes from Bokoor Studio, just outside Accra, Ghana. Bokoor is the creation of Englishman-turned-Ghanaian John Collins, and as this treasure of a CD comes out in 2002, Collins is celebrating 50 years in Ghana. That's serious. Collins started Bokoor in 1982 at a time when a military curfew had curtailed the activities of his own and other highlife bands. Many a band made the only decent recordings of their career at Bokoor, and the studio became a required stopover for anyone exploring music in Ghana, including Afropop Worldwide.

The sheer energy of acts like George Adu, who split off from the City Boys, and the Happy Boys is pretty much irresistible. F. Kenya rightly rates three tracks here, two of which are flat out highlife joy, while the third, "Madame Zehae Aha" (Just as I am), offers a cooler 12/8 groove, still with sensational vocals. The Bokoor Band, which Collins formed in 1971, weighs in with "Yaka Duru," described as Liberian folklore, although the lilting bass and percussion suggest a hint of rumba. The Happy Boys' "Sosu Sei Me" (Limit the Way You Spoil Me) pumps hard enough and with enough electric guitar jangle that it sounds a little like full-out Zimbabwean jit pop. The Beach Scorpions, despite their alarming name, offer a sweeter, tamer sound, singing in English on a long track called "Friends Toady, Enemies Tomorrow." This band split off from one the pillars of classic highlife, Nana Ampadu's African Brothers Band.

In the 1990s, Ghana's great highlife became more and more scarce, edged out mostly by the rise of Christian gospel music, reggae, and DJ's animating clubs with hip-hop and other foreign sounds. That makes this release more than a charming remnant of the past. Electric Highlife is a powerful record of a key chapter in the development of modern African pop.
Contributed by Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org