Various

Ghana Soundz

Funk and fusion from the West Africa state in the ’70s.

First released in 2002, when crate-digging in Africa seemed a remarkably exotic way to waste money, Soundway’s debut release has been out of print for a decade, 10 years that have seen dusty 7-inchers liberated from warehouses from Soweto to Algiers by DJs searching their own holy grail. It’s fair to say Miles Cleret found a few floorfillers on his trip to Ghana all those years ago: Oscar Sulley’s Bukom Mashie was the club hit, but to these ears it’s as easy to imagine the heaving heavy breathing of Rob’s Make It Fast, Make It Slow storming Studio 54 as it is to envisage Marijata’s Mother Africa blowing up at the Flamingo in 1964. With Ebo Taylor, The Sweet Talks and the African Brothers among the other finds, this is still, as MOJO said 15 years ago, “seriously danceable from start to finish”.