Don’t Take My Soul

K.O.G (Kweku of Ghana) is back with his third full-length release Don’t Take My Soul. The album focuses on some key themes, including his community and the music (like highlife and church music) that formed his style, the cross-cultural nature of his life, split between the UK and Ghana, and his personal journey as his career developed. I particularly enjoy how, across the album (especially with the participation of legendary Pat Thomas on the first single ‘Odo Sronko’), K.O.G draws on tropes of highlife, especially its darker side. K.O.G says: “Highlife is absolutely dark. Most of the places you hear real highlife music, it’s funerals… Death is part of life.” Another highlight is ‘Nowhere To Pass’, which opens dramatically with a female choir and tremolo strings, dropping into a highlife groove that maintains the ghostly tremolo strings and echoing vocals. A great album for lovers of groove.