Ata Kak: Obaa Sima [AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA]

Why you'll love it

This Awesome Tapes From Africa reissue comes with an insert and a download code. Obaa Sima was the record that started the label's story, and its seven songs have since streamed more than 8 million times on Spotify.

This edition

• Download card included
• Insert included

About the album

Here's a Toronto story you may not know. In 1989 a drummer from Kumasi named Yaw Atta-Owusu moved to the city, played highlife covers in a local trio, and by 1991 was recording his own songs with an Atari, a synthesizer and a secondhand 12-track. He made them in his living room and bathroom, sped the tapes up, and sent the results home to Ghana, where his brother dubbed about 50 cassettes.

Years later Brian Shimkovitz found one at a roadside stall in Cape Coast, posted it on the very first entry of his Awesome Tapes From Africa blog, and spent ages tracking down the man behind it. The music is unlike anything else: drum-machine house and electro-funk under rapid-fire rapping in Twi, with helium-high backing chants. "Obaa Sima" sets the pace, "Moma Yendodo" keeps the tempo racing, "Daa Nyinaa" bounces, and "Bome Nnwom" closes on a purely instrumental note.

Red Bull Music Academy later made a documentary about the hunt, and Ata Kak finally got the stage time he'd waited for. It was made a streetcar ride or two from our shop and took a Ghanaian roadside stall to find its way back to us. We'd like to think we'd have spotted it sooner.

Also at Kops: more Ata Kak on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Awesome Tapes From Africa (cat# ATFA014), a reissue of the 1994 album.