{"id":88822,"date":"2021-10-04T12:13:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T10:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=88822"},"modified":"2021-10-04T15:20:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T13:20:25","slug":"essilfie-bondzie-essiebons-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/essilfie-bondzie-essiebons-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Analog Africa unveils unreleased highlife from veteran producer Essilfie-Bondzie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Berlin-based label has announced the release of <em>Essiebons Special 1973 &#8211; 1984<\/em>, a compilation of music gathered by the legendary Ghanaian producer.\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>For most of the 1970s, Dick Essilfie-Bondzie\u2019s Dix and Essiebons labels were synonymous with the best in modern highlife, and the producer\u2019s roster made for a who\u2019s-who of highlife legends. C.K. Mann, <a href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/tag\/gyedu-blay-ambolley\/\">Gyedu Blay Ambolley<\/a>, Kofi Papa Yankson, Ernest Honny, Rob \u2018Roy\u2019 Raindorf and <a href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/tag\/ebo-taylor\/\">Ebo Taylor<\/a> all released some of their greatest music under the Essiebons banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After securing a government job in Ghana, Essilfie-Bondzie\u2019s passion for music, which was inspired by the sounds of Accra\u2019s highlife scene, won out over his professional career. In 1967, he combined music and business by opening West Africa\u2019s first record pressing plant. The venture, a partnership with the Philips label, was a huge success, attracting business from all over the continent. By the mid-1970s he was on a hot streak, injecting album after album of restless highlife into the bloodstream of the Ghanaian music scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=472985743\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"><a href=\"https:\/\/analogafrica.bandcamp.com\/album\/essiebons-special-1973-1984-ghana-music-power-house\">Essiebons Special 1973 &#8211; 1984 \/\/ Ghana Music Power House by Various<\/a><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Essiebons Special<\/em>, released via <a href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/tag\/analog-africa\/\">Analog Africa<\/a>, features a selection of obscure works from some of the label\u2019s heaviest hitters. In the course of digitising his vast archive of master tapes, Essilfie-Bondzie found a number of Afrobeat and instrumental masterpieces from the label\u2019s mid-70s golden age that, for one reason or another, had never been released. Those tracks are now showcased here for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly Essilfie-Bondzie passed away before the compilation was finished. But his legacy lives on in the extraordinary music that he gave to the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/analogafrica.bandcamp.com\/album\/essiebons-special-1973-1984-ghana-music-power-house\">Essiebons Special 1973 &#8211; 1984<\/a><\/em> by Dick Essilfie-Bondzie, out on December 3rd via Analog Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/essiebons-special-1010x1010.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-88792\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Berlin-based label has announced the release of Essiebons Special 1973 &#8211; 1984, a compilation of music gathered by the legendary Ghanaian producer.\u00a0 For most of the 1970s, Dick Essilfie-Bondzie\u2019s Dix and Essiebons labels were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":88828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3944],"tags":[3953,5431],"location":[7994],"yst_prominent_words":[10737,8403,9172,10752,8996,8447,8542,8435,21748,12101,26473,8848],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88822"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=88822"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=88822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}