Atamina - Sycophantic Friends [Makkum Records 021]

Having featured a small share of African music on these pages throughout the past years it's now about time to examine the latest release on the Dutch label Makkum Records which has been one of the go-to places when it comes to releases of the Ghanaan Kologo sound and continues to be with its latest album, Atamina's "Sycophantic Friends". Hailing from a town near the border to Burkina Faso we see Atamina, or Professor Atamina as he's likely to be called at times, present a well modernistic, uptempo and dancefloor friendly take on Kologo, a trademark sound that unfolds with the catchy opener which is the title track, presenting a driving sonic vision which seemingly draws influences from the tradtitional Ga music rhythmwise as well and therefore might be working well in combination with tunes created by the Ghanaan Ga / House wizzard DJ Katapila in a DJ-set. With this tune he lays the foundation for things to come, e.g. the well-remarkable smash hit that is "Enjoy Yourself", the more traditional, raw and story-telling Kologo tune "When Two Elephants Fight" or the surprisingly uplifting and positive "No One Wants To Die". With "Rubber Song" Atamina seemingly revives unprocessed, drum machine rhythms of the 80s, "Guhumenga" is once again going back to the Kologo roots and so is the intense, captivating "Bakolko" whereas "Yine Nbise Mam" dabbles with fast paced call-and-response structures and the final song "Tizigra Seem N Tayange" is a blueprint for the spiritual, deep felt side of Kologo for sure. Highly recommended. We'd love to see a vinyl release of this CD only album as well!     

Album artwork on Instagram!