Modern highlife luminary Rex Omar has been a force within the Ghanaian music scene for over 30 years. Now Soundway presents five of his premier cuts remastered for a new self-titled EP.
Over his career Rex Omar has evolved the genre, pushing boundaries and dazzling listeners. A definitive piece of his repertoire comes via his Dangerous album: while it was self-produced and recorded in London circa 1997, upon CD release it saw success mainly within his homeland of Ghana.
An irresistible blend of street-soul-come-highlife, with elements of bouncing 90s RnB/hip-hop, it was developed with help from Ibibio Sound Machine’s Kari Bannerman and prolific Jamaican producer Bill Campbell. From this album rising London producer and DJ Aroop Roy revisits the four-to-the-floor excursion ‘Dada’, repurposing for today’s dancefloor with the addition of fizzing synth chords and stabs.
While Omar regularly raps on his earlier works, on ‘Kele Ngele’ (taken from his 2004 album Ajala) we hear a yearning melodic vocal over a more relaxed RnB beat. This rounds out the new Rex Omar EP for the discerning listener to experience the full breadth of his inventive output.
