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dustedmagazine · 9 months

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African Head Charge — A Trip To Bolatanga (On U Sound)

A Trip To Bolgatanga by African Head Charge

The name of African Head Charge’s first album, My Life in a Hole in the Ground, was both a poke at David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and an acknowledgement of their relative circumstances. The two endeavors actually had this much in common; both were investigating combinations of spiritually charged, sampled sounds and newly recorded grooves nourished by the African diaspora. However, 42 years later, only one is a going concern. A Trip to Bolatanga is the first new work in 12 years by chanter and hand drummer Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, producer Adrian Sherwood and a host of newer and older associates.

The album’s title references a town in Ghana, which has been the Jamaican-born Noah’s base country since the mid-1990s, which gotten some attention for another musical phenomenon. In 2016, Sahel Sounds and Makkum Records collaborated on the release of an album called This Is Kologo Power! Kologo is a variant of West African music named after the two-stringed lute that is used to play it, and one of that compilation’s standout artists, King Ayisoba, guests on A Trip To Bolatanga. In fact, his insistently plucked strings and gravely cackle kick the record off with a bit of English-language advice: “A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go anywhere until you change it.” Near the record’s end, he dispenses more advice. “Never regret a day in your life. Good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience, worst days give you a lesson, and best days give you memories.” It’s fair to say that African Head Charge has cornered the market on African-informed, polyrhythmic self-help jams.

Sherwood and Noah have always been a bit of a juggling act, tossing ancient and contemporary beats into the air and making them spin in time with each other. Some prior attempts have not aged that well, but if you evaluate music in terms of its moment, A Trip to Bolatanga is on strong ground. The combination of nyabinghi hand drumming, booming kick drum, funky guitar, house-ready piano accents and bobbing clarinet on “Accra Electronica” sounding simultaneously of this time and timeless, and there’s no denying the beats’ substantial bang, which both demands and rewards volume deals.

Bill Meyer

#african head charge #a trip to bolatanga #On U Sound #bill meyer #albumreview #dusted magazine #adrian sherwood #Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah #King Ayisoba #dub

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ossdj · 1 year

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lvbnblk · 2 years

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#Kologo street vibes with brotha Nyaabila Showboy. #Ghana represent!

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candont · 3 years

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#kologo #alostmen #moving pictures

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zef-zef · 3 years

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Bola ‎- Burilbunbol Suma from: Bola - Volume 7 (Awesome Tapes From Africa, 2012)

Bola’s music melds sheer force of spirit with a sound not often heard by ears outside the remote Upper East Region of Ghana. His bold fury stems from the kologo, a two-stringed lute with a calabash gourd resonator, and Frafra language vocals, emitted in raspy bursts. Although he employs a traditional instrument and the age-old mode of griot story-telling, Bola embraces elements of up-to-the-minute mainstream Ghanaian music—drum machines, synths, bone-shaking bass. Inspired by pioneering kologo greats like King Ayisoba, Bola has taken a dynamic instrument used by traditional healers and herbalists to sing to god in search of advice and taken it to futuristic heights.

Bandcamp

#2010s #africa #folk #the outer worlds #kologo #frafra #bola #ghana #2012 #awesome tapes from africa #cover art #music #music blog

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mxdwn · 3 years

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Album Review: Alostmen – Kologo

https://music.mxdwn.com/2021/02/27/reviews/album-review-alostmen-kologo/

#alostmen #kologo

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musicfordinner · 3 years

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Sunday afternoon listens!

First off, Happy Valentine’s friends! I hope your spending this day doing something you love with someone you love, whether that someone just be you alone, your parents, friends, family, significant other, etc. ♥️

Today I spent the morning taking care of my sleep health and on a musical world tour, which I love to engage in!

My musical world tour audibly landed me in Ghana listening to a band called Alostmen. This record is called Teach Me and it's a style of music mixing their traditional "Trad" music and some electronic kind of trance music - it features an instrument they call the Kologo, which legit loooks to be a makeshift guitar made with a gascan and pole!

I read a review on this record on The Guardian. You can read that here. It's a pretty dope and unique style of music. I enjoy the mix of Ghanaian dialect and English and it's funky!

Check out the record below on whatever streaming service you use!

#chantel’s sound diary #quarantine #self isolation #music journal #choice trax #music nerd #apple music #music diary #music nerds #music dreams #alostmen #kologo #ghana #musical world tour #world music

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puredamien · 3 years

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Alostmen - Kologo (2021)

#album #music #oldschool #pop #rap #musical #singing #sing #song #cover #old

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burlveneer-music · 4 years

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Àbáse - Invocation - nu-jazz & broken beat with a touch of Afrobeat

After gaining support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Soulection, Nabihah Iqbal or KEXP and appearing for an energetic live set at Thris Tian’s Global Roots radio show on Worldwide FM, Cosmic Compositions is proud to present Budapest born Berlin based keyboard player and producer Àbáse's long anticipated debut EP, “Invocation”. Invocation is a collection of seven songs recorded during a two year period in different locations, capturing Àbáse collaborating with some of the most talented musicians from the buzzing Budapest music scene with special guest performers from Africa and Brazil. Szabolcs Bognár, Rhodes, Clavinet, synths, Fanni Zahár, Flute, Tamás Heilig, Bass Guitar, Moog Ernő Hock, Double Bass, Bamboo Marimbula András Koroknay, Moog Levente Boros, Drums Máté Jancsovics, Drums Tamás Czirják, Drums Bálint Zsigri aka DJ Slow, Percussion Dávid Szarvas, Percussion Bence Táborszky, Trumpet Máté Bartók, Alt Saxophone Gergő Kováts, Baritone Saxophone Viktor Sági aka Vanis, Guitar With special guests: Roque Miguel, conga, xequere, agogo [Invocation] Wayne Snow, vocals [Align] Stevo Atambire, vocals, kologo [Sambo] Joseph Ajusuwine, vocals [Sambo] Saïd Tichiti, vocals, oud, karkabat [Ashek Ellil] Produced by Szabolcs Bognár

#Àbáse #Invocation #soul #hip hop #broken beat #jazz #nu-jazz #electronic #Szabolcs Bognár #2019 #germany

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musicmapglobal · 6 years

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Kologo star Ayuune Sule is fulfilling his destiny

Two years ago the excellent sahelsounds released a compilation called This is Kologo Power!, celebrating new music being created with the northern Ghanaian two-stringed instrument. One of the artists featured was Ayuune Sule, a musician from Kumasi who made his name playing with King Ayisoba, who along with Bolgatanga’s Guy One is probably the most globally known exponent of kologo music. Ayuune Sule’s contribution to the compilation was ‘Who Know Tomorrow’, a scurrying solo track showcasing his knack for impressive musicianship and insistent melody…

This is Kologo Power! by Ayuune Sule

Ayuune Sule followed this with the anthemic ‘What A Man Can Do A Woman Can Do More Better’, inspired by the artist’s attendance of a gender equality event organised by the NGO Send Ghana. While the original was a solo kologo number, a new version featuring vocals from Louisa and full production courtesy of King Ayisoba’s drummer Francis Ayamga takes the track to the next level:

This version is featured on Ayuune Sule’s new album We Have One Destiny, recently released by Lowlands labels Rebel Up! and Makkum. The record explores the full range of Sule’s musicality, meshing both traditional and more modern styles. Listen to the lively ‘Keleke’ below, and buy the full album on Bandcamp…

We Have One Destiny by Ayuune Sule

#afrobeat #Ayuune Sule #Francis Ayamga #ghana #Guy One #King Ayisoba #kologo #Kumasi #Louisa #Makkum #Rebel Up!#sahel sounds

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dustedmagazine · 3 years

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Alostmen — Kologo (Strut)

Kologo by Alostmen

Alostmen’s music centers the kologo, a lute-like instrument played by the nomadic Frafra tribes of northern Ghana and southern Burkina-Faso, whose two long animal gut strings are tuned to a strident fourth interval. The kologo is believed to be a predecessor to the American banjo, though there are lots of African lutes that share this claim (you can read a lot more about the kologo and its place in African music here). It is, in any case, fundamental to Ghanaian traditional music and culture. As kologo player and frontman Stevo Atambire puts it in the title track, “Kologo there before the banjo/Kologo there before the flute/Kologo there before the guitar/Kologo there before the lute/ Kologo there before Ghana/Kologo there before my youth/Kologo there before my mother/Kologo be the music root.”

Yet though the kologo may be the root, this music is pretty far from traditional shepherd music, drawing electronics, rap, highlife and reggae into its volatile mix. The staccato, pinging tones of kologo intersect with intricate rhythms on multiple types of hand drums; credits list Aminu Amadu on talking drum and Sowah on gome box, djembe and congo. A swooning, swooping goje fiddle played by Jo Ajusiwine caroms through “Fauziah,” while African rapper Yaa Pono stutter-chants a hard rhyme. Calls are haunting, responses lush and communal. Producers Wanlov (Fok’n Bois) and Percy Yip Tong bring an amplified, modern fire to Alostmen’s complicated chants and beats. Kologo is a very good time.

And yet, while they groove in the hardest, most hedonistic way possible, Alostmen preach a message, too. “Teach Me,” is a rousing anthem to self-sufficiency setting the old “Teach a man to fish” maxim to a polyrhythmic, polytonal patter of drums. The drumming here gallops and prances and nearly sings, the percussionists derive many different notes from different parts of their instruments, stringing them together in a propulsive melody. The band cuts loose in the final third of the song, in a wailing, caterwauling, exhilarating interplay of voices and drums and kologo that cranks up stone-age vocal elements into an electrified celebration of movement.

The very best track, “Minus Man, brings in Ghanaian highlife star Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and a big brass line to light a match under Alostmen’s already incendiary music. “More bass, more bass,” yells Atambire, as the deep-voiced Ambolley growls and mutters at the low end. Guitars twitch and recoil on the upbeats, hand-drums batter recklessly forward and a brace of trumpets blare, in a bracing amalgam of funk, highlife and rap. The mix is loud and lush enough that you can just barely hear the kologo in it. It reminds you that the instrument may have come before everything else but is very far from the final word on what Alostmen can do with their space age take on traditional music.

Jennifer Kelly

#alostmen #kologo #strut #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #ghana #highlife #afrobeat #rap

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wanlov · 6 years

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For the River - i made this song with my band about plastic pollution in 2008... #ghana is even more polluted today... who do such songs benefit? #youtube #avenor #accra #livemusic #acoustic #cattle #koshka #trumpet #koanlogo #kologo #gome #dreadlocks #riverpollution #banplastic #reducereuserecycle LYRICS: i dey kai the way den we dey swim for the rivers plus wana friends afta den we dey fetch water take go cook den we dey chop better but somtin happen plastic come rivers turn into drastic dumps sewerage and electronic waste sweet river kai toxic taste i wan go boff for the river i wan hold ma head up for the river but e no dey anymore coz the river e full of borla e turn to gutter (at Midori-ku, Yokohama)

#youtube #gome #ghana #koanlogo #kologo #banplastic #cattle #koshka #riverpollution #acoustic #trumpet #reducereuserecycle #avenor #dreadlocks #accra #livemusic

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normstelfox · 5 years

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King Ayisoba sings in Frafra, Twi, and English. Amazing performance from this Ghana musician with his two-stringed kologo. #normstelfoxphotography #jazz #vanjazzfest @coastaljazz #africa #livemusic #vancouverjazzfestival https://www.instagram.com/p/BzLo84mBjrl/?igshid=14ys481pmduwh

#normstelfoxphotography #jazz #vanjazzfest #africa #livemusic #vancouverjazzfestival

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zef-zef · 3 years

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Bola’s music melds sheer force of spirit with a sound not often heard by ears outside the remote Upper East Region of Ghana.

#Africa #kologo #folk #world #Bola #Ghana #2012 #2010s #music blog

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newshuntermag · 2 years

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I Want To Be A Global Icon – King Ayisoba

Ghanaian traditional musician, Albert Apoozore, widely known as King Ayisoba, has opened up on his dreams. Known for his unique style of music alongside the Kologo, Ayisoba has revealed where he is aspiring to be. He told Sammy Flex in an interview Newshuntermag.com has come across that he wants to be a global icon. King Ayisoba was happy to have won the Artiste of the Year with his live…