Hot Casa Records

Highlife is Back with Star Lovers / Boafo Ne Nyame

Reissue fully licensed by Alhaji Kwame Frimpong Family.A classic and essential Hi-Life & Afro Funk album from one of the greatest Ghanaian singer and composer, reissued for the first time! The legendary K Fimpong's fantastic rare album was recorded in 1978 at Ghana Films Studio in Accra.K. Frimpong was born on July 22nd, 1939 at Ofoase in the Ashanti - Akim district and entered right into music after elementary school by joining Star de Republic and later Oko's Band after which he left to K. Gyasy's band where he worked for more than 6 years. As a prolific songwriter and singer, here's the reissue of his amazing album, a modern fusion of Hi- life and Soul. The excellent background is given by the famous Vis à Vis band, composed with the help of the great Collins Obiba Marfo.Originally produced on Ofo Bros the label of the Ofori brothers in Kumasi, this four songs recording is a blend of dancable and spiritual Soul and straight Hi-life. A must have vinyl of percussive Afro Funk for all the music connoisseurs, K. Frimpong backed by Vis à Vis LP is a true masterpiece, so hard to find and reaching crazy skills for a decent copy affordable.Remastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery. Pressed on Replika format.

After a few other successful projects, Franck Biyong, French-Cameroonian Afrobeat composer, guitar player and singer is back on Hot Casa with a hot futuristic Afro-Brazilian club anthem.The similarities and filiations between traditional West-African drumming and Afro-Brazilian religious musical rites are many: under colonial rule African people and African slaves outwardly practiced Christianity but secretly prayed to their own God, Gods, or Ancestor spirits. So we aimed at keeping the gritty urban menacing sound and poetry of Afrobeat with the percussive mass rumble of Batucada and poignant beauty of Carioca. We then got in touch with Cristina Violle, the first lady of “Samba de Roda” in Paris who graced us with a startling inspired and heartfelt melody. The first completed version of the song then briefly went on alternative radio, we also made plans to release a vinyl version, but for one way or another we shelved the project, without thinking we would get back to it again…until a few months ago.We went back to the studio last summer and started ironing the song again from scratch. That same initial spirit and energy caught hold of us again from the day we started and we worked relentlessly to create a balanced but experimental track, showcasing rootsy sound, pop instrumentation, tight world beat drumming, song structure, jazzy horns, spacey synthesizers, choral-like vocal harmonies with call and response figurative vocals.We now proudly present this brand new record; Like our predecessors years ago, we subconsciously did our best to keep alive a longtime tradition of cultural tradition of African Artistic Renaissance, pushing further musical themes of contemporary African sound. To be continued…