by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The coastal West African nation of Ghana is the proud home of the light and lively highlife style of pop music. That's why its contributions to Afrobeat, the meaty, brass-heavy Africanized funk championed by folks like Nigeria's late Fela Kuti and Cameroon's Manu Dibango, haven't got their due hype. English DJ/labelmeister Miles Cleret spent two years in Ghana setting the record straight, with the comp Ghana Soundz on his Soundway imprint to show for it.

Mirror: How would you describe the Ghanaian character? What distinguishes Ghanaians from the other African cultures around them?

Miles Cleret: Ghana is a fairly stable political entity compared to the countries that surround it, and Ghanaians are very proud of that fact. I have traveled a fair bit around the world and I can honestly say that Ghana is one of the friendliest places I've ever been. It's a relaxed and easygoing sort of a place that, in the urban areas at least, has a kind of modern and forward-thinking vibe - more so than a lot of other West African countries.

M: The first step for any DJ or compilation producer, crate-digging, was no doubt a very different experience in Ghana than it would be in say, London, L.A. or Montreal. Furthermore, you had to dig past the dominant highlife material to find the Afro-beat you were after.

MC: The main difference is that the vast majority of the records you find over there are completely wasted. That's not surprising when you take into account a few factors. One, the people of Ghana have an insatiable appetite for music, and records back then simply got played and played and played - weddings, nightclubs, funerals, you name it. Secondly, it's Africa - unbelievably hot, humid, dusty and wet - not the best environment for vinyl. And finally, Africa doesn't have quite the nostalgia for the past we seem to have in the west, and as such many people have simply discarded their old records. That said, I met some old guys who had managed to preserve collections of music despite all this. Many were old producers or guys who used to have record shops back in the '60s and '70s. But it's true that even then it was a case of finding Afrobeat needles in haystacks of highlife. Afrobeat and Afrofusion in Ghana were popular with young musicians and guys that would go clubbing but not necessarily with the richer, record-buying middle classes and as such were always on the fringes.

M: Any observations about the Ghanaian music scene today? Does highlife still rule the roost?

MC: Music in Ghana today is mostly hip-life, a fusion of hip-hop and highlife - the emphasis is usually on the hip hop. I have a lot of Ghanaian musician friends who, like me, are in their 20s and most of them are big into hip hop and reggae. I'm always pushing them to make their music a bit more African and carry on from the legacy of the '70s. But at the end of the day, I guess the reason they are so big into American and Jamaican music is the same reason I'm into African music. They're just looking for something new and different from what their dads were into!

With Andy Williams and A Man Called Warwick at Salon Daomé on Friday, Nov. 14, 10pm, $10

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