Alewa

Ahead of the release of this debut, Accra eight-piece Santrofi tore through the European festival scene with livewire sets. They might be crowd pleasers, but with Alewa Santrofi intend to stir the soul as well as the body by making the case that Ghanaian highlife is high art. Opener ‘Kokrokoo’ takes us back to the origins of the form with a call-and-response conversation led by poet Fapempong, accompanied by the percussive natter of a drum circle. It is not long before bewitching guitar riffs herald the hypnotic highlife grooves. The sense of conversation is not lost though, on tracks like ‘Adwuma’ it emerges in the juxtaposition of the languid vocal delivery with the tight punctuation of the horn section. ‘Africa’ begins with Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah confidently asserting Africa's central place in the world. Alewa is a musical manifesto that echoes these sentiments. Santrofi's members came up in the bands of highlife legends like guitarist Ebo Taylor. Now they are the torch bearers for Ghana's home-grown art form, and the flame burns hot and bright.