Yen Ara

Ebo Taylor has been doing his stuff for more than 60 years now, so he knows how to make an album to get you on your feet. With Yen Ara, he continues to provide a unique blend of highlife and Afrobeat, adding handfuls of disco, jazz and reggae into the mix too. Taylor's hand-picked Saltpond City Band are as tight as anything. It's all about that rhythm section: guitar, keys, bass and konkoma-style percussion and drums intertwine, weaving a rug for the punchy horns and Taylor's aged vocals to dance across.

There's a real ‘rare groove’ sound to this album – it feels like it might have been dug out from a long-forgotten record crate in Accra. This is thanks in part to the sympathetic production of world music adventurer and Robert Plant guitarist Justin Adams, whose touch is often subtle, but who does not shy away from adding some spice when it's appropriate. Yen Ara lacks some of the innovation that Taylor has been known to provide – the tracks on offer could have come from any of his latest albums. But those were great albums. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking but, if you like Ebo Taylor, you’ll love Yen Ara.