The Pop Corporation

What a great thing to have a band name like Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy. Who are they? They’re about to make your day a whole lot better. They’re a group from Ghana who make uplifting, brassy Afrobeat and it does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s filled with joy.

A lot of music sites will refashion the press release so they can pretend they unearthed a gem all by themselves, but not us. We enjoyed what we read that landed in our email, so here it is.

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Alogte was born in Namo’o, a small village near the tranquil town of Bongo in the Bolgatanga hinterland, Ghana. Bongo and its environs are the birthplace of most of the singers and musicians in Frafra country. Born into this fertile environment, Alogte began singing in the church choir from an early age. Every time the drums started to play their rhythm and the choir director gave the cue, he fell into a trance that carried him into another world. Singing was his elixir, his everything.

After finishing school, he decided to pursue a career as a singer. He wrote a few songs, saved up the necessary money to hire a producer to create midi beats for him. and fellow choir members and then subsequently released two albums locally on cassette that sank without a trace. Then a crucial event happened that was to change everything. His uncle, who lives in the distant capital of Ghana, brought him to Accra tohelp with his small business. Alogte, the young man from the rural north, was overwhelmed by the city of a few million inhabitants. When he arrived, his uncle gave him a motorbike to run errands. Alogte was an experienced motorcyclist, but hectic city traffic was new to him and he crashed head-on into an oncoming car in a blind bend. He lay unconscious on the asphalt and only just woke up in the hospital with a broken shoulder, a broken thigh and severe internal injuries, barely escaping death.

He had to stay in the hospital for weeks. The recovery dragged on and the complicated fractures meant he could only lie down. He had a lot of time to think and more and more he realized how lucky he was to be alive. From this mood, the song “Mam Yinne Wa” arose from the depths of his heart. “God, you love me so.” The moment he was finally able to drag himself out of the hospital on crutches, he drove back to Bolgatanga, went into the studio there and recorded the piece. Shaped by what he had to go through, his singing had reached a new level. When “Mam Yinne Wa” was released in 2011, the song captured the Frafras’ hearts like wildfire. Alogte had become the celebrated new star of the Frafra gospel scene overnight. He sold unimagined numbers of his debut album and was suddenly was the name on everyone’s lips.

“O Yinne” is the second album by Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy, on which Max Weissenfeldt has taken over the direction again. The album was primarily recorded in Weissenfeldt’s “Joy Sound Studios” in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Kingdom, deep in the tropical rainforest of Ghana

The gospel choir singing, which is reminiscent of the trombones of Jericho in intensity, is the brand core of the group alongside the melodic brass interjections, the flashing synthesizer accents and the heavily grooving rhythm section. However, anyone who thinks of what is commonly referred to as Gospel when hearing the word will be surprised, because gospel here only refers to the textual content. Musically, it’s an Afro-futuristic firework of pentatonic vocal explosions, carried by rolling West African rhythms. It’s Frafra-Gospel, not Gospel.

With the new album in hand, the group will embark on an extensive European tour this summer. As on record, on stage Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy are an unstoppable bundle of energy, which puts itself and its audience alike in ecstasy. Past concerts have always triggered a frenetic atmosphere. Alogte says: “Just as the Messiah died for us on the cross to take away all sin from us, so I expect the band to transcend this world for our audience to give them all the joy it can. They are the Sounds of Joy.”

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Now, let’s listen to some music. Tour dates below.

15.06.23 UK-London/Jazz Café 
16.06.23 UK-Oxford/Cowley Workers Club 
17.06.23 UK-Bristol/ The Jam Jar 
18.06.23 UK-Liverpool/ Africa Oye
06.07.23 UK-Copenhagen/ Jazz Festival 
07.07.23 UK-Swansea / Love Trail 
08.07.23 UK-Birmingham/ Mostly Jazz 
08.07.23 UK-Tonnau/ Tropical Garden Party
09.07.23 UK-Llangollen/ Fringes Festival
14.07.23 UK -Manchester/ Band on the Wall
15.07.23 UK-Cornwall/ Tropical Pressure
16.07.23 UK-Reading/ Readipop
29.07.23 UK-Charlton Park/ Womad Festival
11.08.23 UK-Wimborne/ We Out Here
26.08.23 UK-Aspatria/ Sol Fest
27.08.23 UK-Northamptonshire/ Shambala
01.09.23 UK-Falmouth/Cornish Bank
02.09.23 UK-Kent/ Smuggler Festival 
03.09.23 UK-Wiltshire/ End of the Road