Highlife Safari

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Long regarded as a classic highlife album since its original release in 1978, Highlife Safari retains its vigor and immediacy to this day. Ghanaian highlife music is a sweet, melodic dance music; Eric Agweman began playing in 1963, slowly developing a new form called sikyi, utilizing Ashanti rhythms and traditional song medleys and the minor chords of the earlier "palm wine" style but upgraded with modern instruments and some Congolese soukous guitar licks replacing highlife's more usual horn arrangements. The resulting extended grooves have delighted party goers ever since, and these six long tracks show why; ringing guitars, swaying bass lines, and occasional stabbing horns make this a dance-floor staple even today. Also included is a rare track from Agyemen's partnership with the Korroko Band in the mid-1980s. --Derek Rath

Tracks:

Matutu Mirika
Abenaa Na Aden?
Ao! Masem Yi
I Don't Care
Nea Abe Beto
Odo Bra

Product Description

Like New condition, includes original CD, case and papers, fast shipping! :D

Amazon.com

Long regarded as a classic highlife album since its original release in 1978, Highlife Safari retains its vigor and immediacy to this day. Ghanaian highlife music is a sweet, melodic dance music; Eric Agweman began playing in 1963, slowly developing a new form called sikyi, utilizing Ashanti rhythms and traditional song medleys and the minor chords of the earlier "palm wine" style but upgraded with modern instruments and some Congolese soukous guitar licks replacing highlife's more usual horn arrangements. The resulting extended grooves have delighted party goers ever since, and these six long tracks show why; ringing guitars, swaying bass lines, and occasional stabbing horns make this a dance-floor staple even today. Also included is a rare track from Agyemen's partnership with the Korroko Band in the mid-1980s. --Derek Rath

Customer Reviews:

beautiful highlife music.......2005-05-27

This album plays beautiful highlife music. Eric Agyeman's Zairean tinged guitar really shines on "Highlife Safari." Recorded in the 1970's, it captures the time when the genre was drifting away from the heavy use of brass and moving towards using all electric musical instruments. Thus the horns are mostly used for accents and punctuation. While the African keyboards squeal every once in awhile, it is the polyrhythms that make everything sway to that wonderful tropical groove. There is enough spacing within the songs to allow the musicians to 'stretch out.' This is great party music as it is very danceable. The song writing is good and the production is excellent. Overall, "Highlife Safari" is a compliment to any Ghanian musical collection.

1. Matutu Mirika 2. Abenaa Na Aden? 3. Ao! Masem Yi 4. I Don't Care 5. Nea Abe Beto 6. Odo Bra

a classic of the genre.......2004-03-16

Eric Agyeman was a highly popular guitarist from the Ashanti region. Mostly recorded in 1979 with the core of the Sweet Talks band. This is guitar-driven highlife with some horns and cheesy synths, representative of the style that was popular in the late 1970s/early 1980s -- a harder, more aggressive sound than the "palmwine" and horn-driven dance band styles that preceded it, and less Westernized than the "Burger highlife" sound that became popular later when many of the musicians ended up in Europe. A variety of singers including the inimitable A.B. Crentsil handle vocal duties.

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