Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984 // Ghana Music Power House | Various

Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984 // Ghana Music Power House

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Pre-order of Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984 // Ghana Music Power House. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

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releases December 3, 2021

€10 EUR or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984 // Ghana Music Power House. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

digital album releases December 3, 2021

item ships out on or around November 25, 2021

Purchasable with gift card

€25 EUR or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984 // Ghana Music Power House. You get 3 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

shipping out on or around December 3, 2021

Purchasable with gift card

€16 EUR or more
T-Shirt/Apparel
Made from 85% Organic Cotton & 15% recycled Polyester
Fair Wear & Vegan approved

Size-Info: Unisex, measures can variate till 5%

S - Half Chest: 50,5 cm / Body Length: 68 cm / Sleeve Length: 64,5 cm
M - Half Chest: 53 cm / Body Length: 72 cm / Sleeve Length: 66 cm
L - Half Chest: 56 cm / Body Length: 74 cm / Sleeve Length: 67,5 cm
XL - Half Chest: 59 cm / Body Length: 76 cm / Sleeve Length: 69 cm

shipping out on or around November 25, 2021

edition of 47

Purchasable with gift card

€65 EUR or more
T-Shirt/Apparel
Made from 85% Organic Cotton & 15% recycled Polyester
Fair Wear & Vegan approved

Size-Info: Unisex, measures can variate till 5%

S - Half Chest: 50,5 cm / Body Length: 68 cm / Sleeve Length: 76,5 cm
M - Half Chest: 53 cm / Body Length: 72 cm / Sleeve Length: 80,5 cm
L - Half Chest: 56 cm / Body Length: 74 cm / Sleeve Length: 82 cm
XL - Half Chest: 59 cm / Body Length: 76 cm / Sleeve Length: 83,5 cm

shipping out on or around November 25, 2021

edition of 47

Purchasable with gift card

€65 EUR or more
Tote Bag
100% cotton bag, 140g, with screen printed Essiebons Special Design

shipping out on or around November 25, 2021

Purchasable with gift card

€7 EUR or more
Full Digital Discography

45

releases

Get all 45 Analog Africa releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984 // Ghana Music Power House, Cameroon Garage Funk, Trujillo - Perú 1971-1974, Edo Funk Explosion Vol.1, Take One, La Locura de Machuca 1975-1980, Fundo De Marê Palinha (Limited Dance Edition), Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical (Limited Dance Edition), and 37 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

€204.50 EUR or more (50% OFF)

	1.	Kofi Psych (Interlude 1) 04:30
	2.	Dee Mmaa Pe video
	3.	Yeaba
	4.	Shakabula
	5.	Tinitini
	6.	Ahwene Pa Nkasa 07:01
	7.	Ernest Special (Interlude 2)
	8.	Africa 06:28
	9.	Medley (Broken Heart, Aunty Yaa, Omo Yaba (Nzema))
	10.	Say The Truth (Interlude 3)
	11.	Wonnim A Bisa
	12.	Egye Tu Gbe
	13.	Fa W’Akoma Ma Me
	14.	Odo Mframa (Interlude 4)

about

Dick Essilfie-Bondzie was all ready for his 90th birthday party when the Covid pandemic hit. The legendary producer, businessman and founder of Ghana’s mighty Essiebons label had invited all his family and friends to the event and it was the disappointment at having to postpone that prompted Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb to propose a new compilation celebrating his contributions to the world of West African music.

For most of the 1970s Essilfie-Bondzie’s Dix and Essiebons labels were synonymous with the best in modern highlife, and his roster was a who’s-who of highlife legends. C.K. Mann, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Kofi Papa Yankson, Ernest Honny, Rob ‘Roy’ Raindorf and Ebo Taylor all released some of their greatest music under the Essiebons banner.

Yet Essilfie-Bondzie had been destined for a very different career. Born in Apam and raised in Accra, he was sent to business school in London at the age of 20, and returned to the security of a government job in Ghana. But his passion for music, inspired by the sounds of Accra’s highlife scene, had never left him, and in 1967 he figured out a way of combining music and business by opening West Africa’s first record pressing plant.

The venture, a partnership with the Philips label, was a huge success, attracting business from all over the continent. By the early 1970s Essilfie-Bondzie had left his government job to concentrate on his labels, and by the mid-seventies he was on a hot streak injecting album after album of restless highlife into the bloodstream of the Ghanaian music scene.

Essiebons Special features a selection of obscure workouts from some of the label’s heaviest hitters. But in the course of digitising his vast archive of master tapes, Essilfie-Bondzie found a number of Afrobeat and Instrumental maszterpieces tracks from the label’s mid-70s golden age that, for one reason or another, had never been released. Those songs are included here for the first time.

Sadly Essilfie-Bondzie passed away before the compilation was finished. But his legacy lives on in the extraordinary music that he gave to the world in his lifetime.

credits

releases December 3, 2021

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Kathrin Remest (Analog Africa)
MASTERING: Nick Robbins (Soundmastering)
LACQUERS: Frank Merritt (The Carvery)
INTERVIEWS AND BIOGRAPHY: Jesse Simon and Samy Ben Redjeb TEXT EDITING: Jesse Simon

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Craig and Nina Debrah, Alf Bremer, Ikon Afrik, Alexander Opoku-Agyemang, Eric Blankowv, Elia Christian Vargas, Stephanie Vollé, Christian Buksti, Martin Van Aalst and William Dorey aka Skinshape

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The Future of Music Happened Decades Ago

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