Consumer Guide: August, 2021

Discontented candor, miraculous West Indian guitar, political hip-hop with aesthetic vortex, and punk-sparked roots. Plus: Ghanaian Afrofunk, a happy armed robber, and rhythm as a unit of meaning.

Gyedu-Bley Ambolley: Simigwa (Mr Bongo) In Ronnie Graham’s 1988 Da Capo Guide to Contemporary African Music, this 1973 debut heads a list name-checking several dozen “Various” Ghanaian artists. So having learned that Ambolley had long since emigrated to the States the way Eddie Quansah did to Australia, and having already found his 2019-released 11th St…