Ghana in the 1970s: highlife, rock, and blues collide and merge with tradition and culture. New styles meet old styles. A new generation renews old musical customs. New fashions meet old fashions, creating new fusions. Soundway present thirty-three original and previously un-reissued tracks from the time: obscure A-sides, B-sides and album cuts that have resisted a second look until now.
Extensive press coverage UK and internationally.
Compiler and label boss Miles Cleret travelled many times to Ghana to track down these long-lost and unavailable recordings. Ghana Special focuses on a variety of the vast number of diverse musical styles made in Ghana at the time - a selection of thirty-three tracks handpicked from a multitude uncovered over nearly ten years of on-going research: driving around the cities of Ghana, banging on musician's doors, visiting distributors, DJs, collectors, manufacturers and shop owners. The roots of this project go back to a pair of albums named Ghana Soundz (Volumes 1 and 2), which focussed solely on the 'funkier' side of the same period. Alongside new artists and groups, some other works of the many musicians and producers Cleret met whilst researching those records are also included here. Many of these tracks have remained only in people's memories or in collections of LPs that sit unplayed: until now of course.