{"title":"Ata Kak","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"obaa-sima","title":"Obaa Sima","description":"\u003cp\u003eAta Kak's cassette Obaa Sima fell on deaf ears when it was self-released in Ghana and Canada in 1994. The music on the recording - an amalgam of highlife, Twi-language rap, funk and disco - is presented with the passion of a Prince record and the DIY-bedroom-recording lo-fi charm of early Chicago house music. The astute self-taught song craft and visionary blend of sounds and rhythms has made the album a left-field cult favorite among adventurous listeners worldwide. Awesome Tapes From Africa founder Brian Shimkovitz found the tape in 2002 in Cape Coast, Ghana - one of only a few ever pressed - and later made it the inaugural post on the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog. Hundreds of thousands of downloads, YouTube views, music video tributes and remixes, as well as years of mystery regarding Ata Kak's whereabouts, culminate in this remastered release featuring rare photos and the full back story of one of the internet age's most enigmatic musicians. LP- With Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Awesome Tapes From Africa","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50493207839051,"sku":"385268","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50493208887627,"sku":"385267","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/07631967-d955-4564-a607-0e90191f75f8_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727696114"},{"product_id":"batakari","title":"Batakari","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAta Kak created a peculiar slice of Ghanaian music history with his debut album “Obaa Sima”. While it barely made a ripple at the time of its release in 1994, the cassette found a new life online in 2006. A not-sounderground cult obsession grew after it appeared on the blog Awesome Tapes From Africa as its very first post, a sort of manifesto for the project. His addictive amalgam of left-field electronic music and Twi-language hiplife reached surprising levels of awareness among music fans of many stripes. The mystery behind the musician’s identity grew. Eventually Yaw Atta-Owusu came out of the shadows, from his quiet home in Kumasi, to tour the world playing high-energy, sweat-soaked performances at major festivals like Glastonbury, Sónar and Pop Montreal. Now, for the first time since 1994, Ata Kak releases new music. Honed in studios around Kumasi over the last several years, the songs feature the rapper-singer’s acrobatic rap, signature scatting, dramatic drums and even traditional Akan harp. The compositions are more ambitious than his earlier work, with more complex arrangements and layered harmonies. Ata Kak’s new songs are also the natural expression of a restless artist—he is a prolific poet and author of a half-dozen books, as well as an active gardener and busy painter. Born in Ghana in 1960, Ata Kak wasn’t always involved in music. But his travels and openness to the world lead him into the music industry. While living in Germany, he was invited to play drums in a reggae band and subsequently played in highlife bands in Ontario after moving to the Toronto area. He recorded “Obaa Sima” there at his home studio and released it in Ghana in 1994. He didn’t participate in music much in the intervening years until “Obaa Sima” was reissued in 2015. He started performing his song live with the help of a brilliant cast of Londonbased musicians and has toured three continents and played to thousands of fans in venues of all kinds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Awesome Tapes From Africa","offers":[{"title":"LP - Lily Pad Green Marble","offer_id":53184101187915,"sku":"R8871-4010","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":53184101220683,"sku":"R8871-1671","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":53184101253451,"sku":"R8871-5855","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape","offer_id":53184101286219,"sku":"R8871-6015","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Ata_Kak_-_Batakari-1.jpg?v=1755266821"},{"product_id":"obaa-sima-anniversary-remaster","title":"Obaa Sima (Anniversary Remaster)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is no bigger surprise internet music success story than that of Ata Kak. The Ghanaian rapper-singer released a tape quietly in 1994 only to be rediscovered online in 2006 as the pre-streaming blog-fueled online music collector movement was in full swing. The wildly addictive confluence of lo-fi house with earnestly-rendered, full-throated Burger Highlife captured the hearts of music heads around the globe in the mid-2000s. With the help of his London-based band Ata Kak played shows worldwide and graced enormous stages performing to thousands of fans. The seven songs on \u003cem\u003eObaa Sima \u003c\/em\u003ehave delighted and confounded listeners since it appeared as the inaugural post on the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog. A well-documented years-long search for the singer concluded with a reissue in 2015. Despite painstaking work by ATFA’s longtime mastering engineer collaborator Jessica Thompson, the audio source was not of superior fidelity. The original DAT tape was moldy and disintegrating. Now, after years of searching for the highest quality source cassette, Ata Kak is making available the Obaa Sima Anniversary Remaster. We can finally hear the now-legendary left-field dance floor classic in glistening-clear audio for the first time. The original \u003cem\u003eObaa Sima\u003c\/em\u003e reissue has shipped more than 10,000 LPs and the cassette has been downloaded from the original blog post hundreds of thousands of times. Ata Kak played intensely-energetic shows at clubs and festivals all over on the strength of this classic recording. The deluxe edition of the new remaster includes a splatter-colored LP and a DVD documentary with previously unreleased footage.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Awesome Tapes From Africa","offers":[{"title":"LP - Splatter \/ Deluxe with DVD","offer_id":53184169148747,"sku":"R5694-6585","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":53184169181515,"sku":"R5694-6586","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":53184169214283,"sku":"R5694-6587","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape","offer_id":53184169247051,"sku":"R5694-6588","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/AtaKak-ObaaSima.jpg?v=1755267252"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/ata-kak.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}