Ghanaian Roots Fused Electronic Music
RA put together this cool feature on Electronic music emerging from Ghana, giving a brief history lesson on its development from traditional African drumming, to its iconic Highlife scene, and into what it’s become today.
It goes into influences from changes in technology, like how horns and drums had been replaced by synthesizers and drum machines, and into how migration to places Germany formed bustling localised Highlife scenes.
It’s interesting how some of the more live/”traditional” artists that had gained interest in the mid 2010’s had originally music released back 20/30 years ago. The labels who wanted to re-release much of these bootleg discoveries to a current Western audience took years to execute this, largely down to the extraordinary efforts of re-tracing these artists.
Afrobeats has taken the world by storm, yet the emerging Electronic music scene is still thriving and giving space for a movement that’s alternative. Gafacci talks about his influences and the importance of identity in his music. His goes into the parallels of what’s happened in the UK, especially referring to UK Funky and Bass, which his mix reinforces. Hagan is another producer who is talked about in this, although being actually from the UK but with Ghanaian roots. He too has found a way to reenforce his Ghanian roots in a UK bass fusion. He’s actually has a new release out on Jamz Supanova’s Futurebounce label, definitely worth checking out.
Most definitely check out this little documentary about the scene which follows Hagan around Ghana, and Gafacci’s mix for RA.