Chances are, unless you’re really down with the kologo-playing tradition of Ghana, you’ve never heard anything like this.
A precursor of the banjo, the kologo, a two-string lute instrument, has a history going back over 300 years, and has links to the early slaves of Senegal. Prince Buju is a slave to no-one, and ‘We Are In The War’ is an expanded international version of his domestic album release ‘Rots and Culture Music’, featuring in addition his ecent home hit song ‘In the War’.
The rawness of the music and the intensity of the spirit are unmistakeable. The instrumentation is primitive, but the simplicity only serves to accentuate the urgency, vitality and passion of Buju’s performances. The formula – if you can call it that – is simple: one man with a gritty vocal and a whole lot of soul, pushed to the max, accompanied by a rough-hewn instrument with but two stings, thrashed to within an inch of its life. This, people, is music. This is soul, this is blues. It’s real. And it’s bloody great.
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Prince Buju Online
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