Soundway / UK / RE 2025 / LP, Black
Alhaji K Frimpong’s 1977 Highlife masterpiece, melding traditional Ghanaian musical forms with experimental instrumentation and innovative arrangements.
The Black Album expands the electronic elements and features the visionary Hwehwe Mu Na Yi Wo Mpena, although the real gem is hiding on the B side: the extended groove of “Adam Nana”. Sinuously evolving guitar lines, clavinet vamps, harmonised vocal snatches and otherworldly percussion expand and contract over a full quarter of an hour - a Ghanaian repost to the Afro Jazz experiments going on at the same time on the other side of the Atlantic.
Although popular in Ghana at the time of the release, the album was never distributed internationally and original copies of the album are extremely rare. The album got a limited reissue in 2011 and has been unavailable since - even reissue copies sell for high prices on the second hand market.