{"id":806180,"date":"2020-04-08T08:54:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T14:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=980015"},"modified":"2020-04-08T08:54:59","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T14:54:59","slug":"onipa-channel-ghanaian-highlife-to-great-effect-on-yenimno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/onipa-channel-ghanaian-highlife-to-great-effect-on-yenimno\/","title":{"rendered":"Onipa Channel Ghanaian Highlife to Great Effect on \u2018Yenimno\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Onipa.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span>\u201cYenimno\u201d is a raucous blast of energy from Onipa\u2019s recently released debut album, <\/span><i><span>We No Be Machine<\/span><\/i><span>. The guitar is a marvel here, generating restless, romping momentum in cascades of sing-song lines, and all four group members contribute to a stirring chorus.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Onipa is a relatively new outfit formed by Kweku Sackey, best known for his work in K.O.G and the Zongo Brigade, and Tom Excell, a member of Nubiyan Twist.&nbsp;<\/span><span>The group dubs their sound \u201cSavanna bass,\u201d which they describe as \u201ca fundamental thread of traditional African rhythms, instrumentation and storytelling, interwoven with electronics, urban soundscapes and synth bass.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Both the Zongo Brigade and Nubiyan Twist are sprawling \u2014 with nine and ten members, respectively \u2014 but Onipa shrinks to just four players: Sackey on vocals and miscellaneous percussion, Excell on guitar, Dwayne Kilvington on synthesizers, and Finn Booth on drums.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sackey and Excell find the small-group format refreshing. \u201cThere\u2019s only 4 of us, so we can compose very quickly,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tickets.partyforthepeople.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/4\/interview-onipa-bring-fire-to-the-yellow-arch-studios\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><span>they explained<\/span><\/a><span>. \u201cAlso having restrictions of fewer instruments can bring about interesting results\u2026 Sometimes it\u2019s pretty hard, as we\u2019re all multi-tasking playing multiple instruments each in one tune, but it keeps us on our toes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>We No Be Machine<\/span><\/i><span> also includes contributions from artists across Africa: Wiyaala (Ghana), Spoek Mathambo (South Africa), Morena Leraba (Lesotho), and Pendo &amp; Leah Zawose (Tanzania).<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3> Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/onipa-yenimno-we-no-be-machine-980015\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYenimno\u201d is a raucous blast of energy from Onipa\u2019s recently released debut album, We No Be Machine. The guitar is a marvel here, generating restless, romping momentum in cascades of sing-song lines, and all four group members contribute to a stirring chorus.&nbsp;&nbsp; Onipa is a relatively new outfit formed by Kweku Sackey, best known for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-16 21:12:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}