O Yinne!

Lively church music based on Ghanaian highlife traditions with a modern electric slant. Guitars, two keyboards and a horn section provide a very versatile musical backing to the extremely enjoyable vocals. Alogte Oho's strong male voice is backed by his ‘choir’ of two female singers. The female voices have a slinky charm to them that is reminiscent of Nigeria's Lijadu Sisters and, particularly on ‘This is Bolga!’, like Fela's Africa 70 chorus. Alogte Oho's music is steeped in the FraFra roots of his homeland in the north of Ghana. However, his producer Max Weissenfeldt (from German funksters The Poets of Rhythm) introduces other elements that make this album musically varied. Bolstering the sound are saxophone and flute from Finnish musician Jimi Tenor. On ‘Te Bola Be?’ acoustic guitar, played by Akule Pepe of Alex Konadu's band, riffs the famous ‘Yaa Amponsah’ melody, a classic of vintage palmwine and highlife music. ‘Yinne Te Yelle Be’ and ‘Gure Yose Me’ both have a familiar loping reggae rhythm and on the former there is a charming vibraphone which gives it a distinct Ethiopian jazz flavour similar to Mulatu Astatke. Whilst this is highlife music, it is also futuristic and highly inventive.