This episode of Island Time brings us a special mix from @morgan-greenstreet , a musician, DJ, and journalist based in New York. Here he gives us a deep dive into a style of music called simpa – in his words:

Simpa is a style of neo-traditional popular music of the Dagbani people of the north of Ghana. It exists in two overlapping forms: the live, acoustic session of drumming, singing and dancing – for example the group Kakpag-Yili Wait and See – and the highly produced electro-simpa versions created for sale in the local DVD market. These hard-driving tracks are produced by DJ/producers like Ebony and DJ Chare/Charlie with star singers like Dickson Gawan and Yaa Naraa.

For the traditional version, the drummers build their own drums from metal barrels, even making their own kick drum pedals. Some groups use a trumpet live and these answering melodic lines are represented by synths for the electro versions. The dancers are almost exclusively young women, and the dance is all about rapid, suggestive waist shaking.

I first heard simpa when I was in Tamale in the Northern region of Ghana in 2015. As my friend Saeed Alhassan Dawuni and I were running around town recording traditional music events for an Afropop Worldwide program, I kept hearing incredible local pop music blasting from car stereos and shops. Saeed and I visited a few music shops but they didn’t have anything like the stuff I’d been hearing. Eventually we visited a friend of Saeed’s who filled up a thumb drive with assorted low bitrate mp3s which I combed through for months after the trip, resulting in a Dagbani pop mix for Afropop (https://soundcloud.com/afropop-worldwide/dagbani-pop). One track on that mix really stood out for me, a twenty minute, fast-paced percussion-driven tune (mis)labeled “ebony hiphop.” Saeed identified the artist as Dickson Gawan and the style as simpa, and from there my interest deepened. We’ve been in touch in the years since then and Saeed keeps feeding my need for simpa with regular batches of new tracks. Through Saeed, I’m in touch with Dickson Gawan and plan to visit Tamale when feasible to work on a compilation of simpa for international release. Special thanks as well to Dave Ewenson who recorded “Kakpag-Yili Wait and See” and shared some insights into neo-traditional simpa with me.

Tracks are from Dickson Gawan, Bala Zaaku, Alhassan Kukoo Naa, Sala Takoro and Sumaya Yaanara and all of these tracks are produced by either Ebony or Dj Chare/Charlie. Many of these can be found with accompanying videos on youtube

Image in artwork is from video by Dave Ewenson

Island Time Radio  Mix 39 With Modrums (Simpa Special)

Musician, DJ, journalist, based in NYC @zonalibredjs

modrums (Morgan Greenstreet) is a drummer, DJ, journalist and radio producer based in New York City. He’s a resident DJ of Zona Libre with dj tres dos. modrums approaches his DJ sets with an ear to the sonic footprint of the African diaspora, drawing on an impressive collection built from his years as a radio producer and a musician and shaped by his frequent travels through Europe, West Africa and the Caribbean. He plays with a sense of tension and release, emotion and humor, merging roots, retro pop and current aesthetics into a singular experience of communal joy.

philly/oakland musical wandering
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Island Time Radio is a community project from Alex Coppola @xela-music plus guests. A monthly mix series exploring African, Latin, Caribbean, off-the-grid 
international and underground music.

Open-World streaming every 2nd Saturday of the month, 3-4PM EST on @great-circles