World music fans around the globe, old enough to remember the showbiz scene of the late 1970s and the early 1980s in Ghana, willnot fail to remember Edikanfo.The bandwas the last group, out of a range of bands formed by Faisal Helwani, whowas based atthe popular night club, Napoleon Club atOsu, a suburb in Ghana’s capital Accra. Edinkanfo (also known as The Pacesetters) rose to fame after releasing their album The Pace Settersin 1981. The album was produced by Brian Eno who started discovering African music at the time and decided to travel of to Ghana to work with Edikanfo.Just when the sky was the limit for Edikanfo, the coup d’état of the last day of 1981 (31st December 1981) put the brakes on the band’s fortune.

For years Ghana had to endure night curfews which restricted the band from making moves. This ultimately resulted in the band being forced to leave the country. The band members were soon spread out all over the globe and that seemed the end for Edikanfo. Meanwhile in Ghana, Edikanfo’smusic lived on. The song Nka Bon, meaning togetherness became the rallying anthem of the military cum civilian Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government. This found place in its attempt to instill patriotism and rally the Ghanaian people to rebuild their country. Now, almost four decades later Edikanfo returns. With its surviving members gearing up to reissue The Pace Settersand tour with the 1981 classic the band is more alive than ever. “Apart from the re-issue, we’ve been in the studio for the past two-three years recording fresh material,”says bassist, songwriter and founding member Gilbert Amartey Amar, popularly known as Chi-kin-chee from his base in Amsterdam.The Pace Setterswill be released as a reissue in the spring of 2020.