Afro Matinee: KING AYISOBA + ZEA

KING AYISOBA (gh)
"a star in Ghana, where in the last decade he ascended the pop charts with a raw, emphatic sound based on kologo music from his
ancestral home in the northern part of the country. The album's producer Zea, from the legendary Dutch post-punk band The EX, tells us: "King Ayisoba and his band know that traditional instruments are stronger than anything modern. Playing them is a gift from God. They'll take what they can use from electronica, from hiplife (the hugely popular Ghanaian style that fuses the local highlife music with hip-hop) but they won't let it beat them, because they know what they have is more powerful. Their music is pulled from the ground."

+ ZEA (nl)
"Solo performance from Arnold de Boer deploying guitar and sampler for an almighty bout of high energy songs. Urgent lyrics over guitar, roughshod beats and grimy bass lines.  This is fat-free music with no words wasted; joyfully obstinate, wonderfully bonkers."