Bola - Volume 7 (Double vinyl LP, CD)

No! Don't call the record label that! No, No, No. Ok, let's start again, talking about the music this time. This is really great stuff straight outta Ghana. Musically it consists of repetitive beats overladen by two stringed lute, simple but enormously effective. Over the evocative rhythms Bola barks out his lyrics. He has a real foghorn of a voice on him and it's seemingly made of elastic as it stretches this way and that. It's modern sounding rather than traditional but the production is simple and it's not trying to sound 'western' or to use modern recording techniques in any kind of obvious way. Instead a series of dynamic rhythmic snapshots from Ghanaian life (this lad grew up herding livestock) with extremely affecting raspy vocals. Oh, and it's obviously not the electronic artist Bola who did the album 'Soup' so don't get confused.