Borga Revolution! Ghanaian Dance Music In The Digital Age, 1983​​​-​​​1996 (Volume 2)
by Various Artists

Description

The second volume in their ‘Borga Revolution!’ compilation series is focussing on the phenomenon of ‘Burger Highlife’, a crossover of West African melodies with synthesizers, disco and boogie that took over Ghanaian airwaves during the 1980’s and beyond.

Featuring both highly sought-after recordings by artists including Atta Frimpong and D.J. Lawyer Okyere, as well as seminal performances by greats such as Pat Thomas, A.B. Crentsil and Alan Cosmos, Kalita once again come to the rescue of audiophiles, DJs an music-lovers alike with ‘Borga Revolution! – Volume 2’. Spread over a double-LP housed in a gatefold sleeve with a 12 page full-size colour booklet examining the stories of the artists

Accompanied by a 12-page booklet featuring extensive interview-based linernotes on each artist and never-before-seen archival photos. The 1970s had witnessed an increased Western airtime and physical presence in Ghana introducing funk, soul and disco sounds to the region. By the turn of the decade the country was also enduring economic turmoil, with rising poverty, military dictatorships and long periods of enforced curfews (amongst other factors) making it impossible for artists to survive. As a result, many Ghanaian artists with a broader outlook began to pursue their careers in the West, moving to both Europe and America in search of stardom. It was here that Ghanaian musicians developed a digitised version of highlife music which fully embraced Western contemporary music styles and newly introduced technology such as the DX7 synthesizer and various drum machines.

It is in this context in which the evolution of Ghanaian dance music and the emergence of ‘burger highlife’ was born. With the ‘Borga Revolution!’ series Kalita endeavour to tell this story, with prominent and lesser-known musicians’ accounts anddocumentary evidence providing a comprehensive understanding of this shift to the digital age.