Get your Friday off to a fun start by exploring the vivid world of Ghana’s pop music scene of the ’80s and early ’90s, through this grooving new compilation on Soundway Records.

Available today on a 2-CD or triple record set, Ghana Special 2 dips into an era in the country’s history when imported musical instruments were heavily taxed and the local economy struggled, leading to DJs dominating the country’s dance halls in place of bands. This was a time when American disco, European New Wave and Caribbean dance music had a significant influence on Ghanian artists, which lead many to start incorporating drum machines, synthesizers and other modern sounds into their work. While a lack of instruments and a new regime-enforced evening curfew pushed many local musicians to travel abroad to places like Germany to perform and gain access to higher quality studios and gear, the country’s music scene shifted into to a sleeker, more minimalist sound that still pumped with the grooving rhythms and funky beats that were popular in Ghana since the ’60s and ’70s. This new genre became known as “burger highlife.”

Highlife music is a solely Ghanian genre that combines the melodies and rhythms of traditional African music with Western jazz, and is usually played on Western instruments. As cities in Germany, like Hamburg, gradually became the new epicenter for musicians who traveled back and forth from Ghana to Europe for work, the term “Bürger”, which is German for “citizen,” was applied to this new modernized version of highlife.

Across this compilation, you’ll be treated to some seriously fun examples of burger highlife tunes. From insatiable synth-pop dance grooves to electro Afrobeat boogies and distinctly Ghanian interpretations of reggae, this record will keep your toes tapping and you mood warm and bright for the rest of your day. Songs like “Gye Wani,” by Pat Thomas, the “Golden Voice of Africa,” surge with driving grooves and hypnotic beats that’ll make even the most jaded listener want to get up and bop along to the music. If you need to listen to something uplifting, this is the album to reach for.

Click here to order your copy today.

-KH