Putoo Katare Yire

Back in the days when there were still live gigs, Songlines gave an enthusiastic review to a 2018 London concert by Ghana’s Ayunne Sule, praising his ‘rich, powerful voice’ and ability to hold the room accompanied only by the two-strings of his traditional lute, the kologo. His 2018 debut solo album, We Have One Destiny, was a Top of the World – and the follow-up (its title translates from Frafra as ‘Wickedness Has No Home’) is cut from similarly earthy cloth. Driven by the mesmeric throb of the kologo, the nine tracks range from the stark simplicity of the opener ‘Tezaa So Ndeyine’ to the more developed Afrobeat-style arrangement of ‘Don’t Be Lazy’ and the influence of both Bob Marley and Fela Kuti can be heard in Sule’s declamatory voice.

He experiments with electronics and a vocoder over the skittering beats of ‘Fighting Music’ and the distortions of ‘Yaaba Waane’ share the same aesthetic as the early Congotronics releases. Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah of African Head Charge guests on a couple of tracks and if the sonic fidelity is low, you get the feeling that it’s a deliberate decision based on the not unreasonable contention that this is music best tasted raw.