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Home  Music + Reviews The New Era of World Music
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The New Era of World Music |
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Written by Teng Acheampong
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‘The House that Funk Built in Africa’ from Afroganic is more than just world music it is an album full of ripe flavours, sun-kissed sounds and strictly no artificial additives, that is uplifting and full of energy is now available for download at www.afroganic.com. Every once in a while a musical movement comes along that is so deep and pure that it touches the listener. Afroganic is a natural, unprocessed sound of African music with no artificial synthesizer and a formulaic sound normally associated with house music.
“Afroganic has worked to unearth natural rhythms and talents so enriched with musical beauty that you will not be able to resist dancing,” said Andrew Asamoah International A&R SonyBMG. “Numerous big re-mixers such as Kings of Soul, Bobby Blanco, Mikki Moto, Soul Seekerz have embraced the idea and are now working with Afroganic on a number of future projects to inject a new sound into the club atmosphere.”
Afroganic founder “Tha Prof” is not a newcomer to music. He has worked with the likes of Bootsy Collins, Tasha’s World and was inspired by the Soul2Soul movement which focussed on ‘keeping it real’. Afroganic have successfully captured the talent of Ghanaian artists with their impressive range of acoustic textures and vocal ranges. The result is an unrehearsed, unprocessed and unpretentious interpretation of funky house and rare grooves.
Unlike the current trends on the market, Afroganic has moved away from the drum-drenched African music or world music sampled to offer an ethic alternative and actually delivers what it promises. Providing a mix of rare sound images and various dialects spanning English and Ghana’s native Hawusa, Twi, Dagonba dialects, which has given birth to a melody so rare you wonder if each layer has been hand picked from the soil
Two years ago, in Accra Ghana, word of mouth brought droves of buskers, street performers, session musicians, talkers and thinkers knocking at the door to see what all the fuss was about. After a couple of impromptu jamming sessions, just riffing and winging it and the odd scratching of jeans, the Afroganic sound was born.
Two years later, ‘The House that Funk Built in Africa’ is an album full of club tracks and catchy melodies. The Haussa language lyrics of ‘Yani’ speak of the tribal quarrels in the north of the country and call for a truce. ‘Midofopa’ (I love you lots) is one of the more traditional high-life style tracks featured, speaking of a woman caught between the two men she loves, a song that conveys the true spirit of local Ghanaian music, the richness and depth of the country’s musical tradition.
Every section of the Web site shows the album gaining momentum, blending sounds together that on the cosmetic front would not work, but the mixture is breathtaking. Paul Simon’s Graceland’s is the closest thing to this project, but was apt for his era. Twenty years on, Afroganic taps into the raw organic talent in Africa lost amid the growing influx of computer-generated music.
This project is set to become a search for the unheard vocals and tunes around the globe in the genre of world music, African music and beyond. For more information and sample sounds of the instruments, follow the link to www.afroganic.com
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