Borga Revolution! Ghanaian Dance Music in the Digital Age 1983-1996 (Vol Two)

By the 1980s Ghana's once vibrant highlife scene was in decline along with the country's economy, and many of the country's best musicians emigrated to Europe or North America, where they absorbed western pop sensibilities and embraced disco, boogie and electronica. Using synths and drum machines, these elements were combined with a residue of traditional highlife to create a hybrid that became known as burger (borga) highlife. This is the second volume in the Kalita label's survey of the genre and the first thought that strikes one is that burger highlife was clearly a staging post on the way to the contemporary Afrobeats scene. The plastic beatbox rhythms and cheap synths will either sound horribly dated or pleasingly nostalgic, depending on your attitude to 1980s music, but even if one misses the polyrhythmic glory of traditional highlife, there are still plenty of chanted choruses and West African guitar tropes to remind us where the music originally came from. The 11 tracks feature younger burger highlife stars such as the German-based Alan Cosmos, Atta Frimpong and D.J. Lawyer Okyere plus older highlife legends who adapted to the new style including Pat Thomas, Pope Flyne Ackah of AB Crentsil's legendary Sweet Talks band and Crentsil himself whose splendid ‘Mame Dwen Meho’ is the album's highlight.