The Pace Setters

In 1981 Brian Eno travelled to Ghana to produce an album by the eight-piece Afro-funk band Edikanfo. Shortly after its release, there was a military coup, Edikanfo's planned world tour was cancelled and the band broke up. Their one and only album was swiftly forgotten and has been unavailable ever since. Its first reissue in almost 40 years reveals a classic West African album fusing highlife with exuberant slabs of Western funk and disco. Delivered with a verve and precision that's as tight as it gets; it sounds as if Eno didn't have to do much more than press the record button. From the first notes of the opener, ‘Nka Bon’, this is African funk at its most potent. Gilbert Amartey Amar's propulsive bass lines, the horn section of Osei Tutu (trumpet) and Paa Akrashie (sax) and the call-and-response vocals owe something to Fela Kuti but the synth keyboards and disco hi-hats take us into boogie wonderland. Traditional Ghanaian highlife is given an electronic update on the exuberant ‘Something Lefteh-O’ before it's back to the disco floor with ‘Gbenta’ and the funked-up ‘Moonlight Africa’ and ‘Daa Daa Edikanfo’. The surviving members are now in the studio recording a belated follow-up. Welcome back.