IND!E FUSE 2013: The Official Poster

Hot off the presses…the official poster for the 4th Annual IND!E FUSE 2013 – this December 12 – 14th. Meet the artists at this Friday’s Talk Party Series and find out all about the show before we take off next month.

THE TALK PARTY SERIES is Back Fri. Nov 29th

THE FOKN BOIS are one of the headliners for IND!E FUSE 2013 | photo by Mantse Aryeequaye

The Talk Party Series is back this Friday, November 29th, 2013. We are meeting up at Passions Premium Restaurant in Osu Ring way [two streets behind Country Kitchen and one street behind Pippa’s Gym] from 6:30-9:30pm. Join us for a pre-jam get together for the 4th Annual IND!E FUSE, December 12 – 14, 2013.

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AFRICAN ELECTRONIC MUSIC has become a mutant creature that is changing and adapting into spaces unheard of until a few years back. Ghanaian music producers and DJs have created a pop culture stock exchange with the players looking to be crowned kings and queens.

In Ghana, azonto – in all its hybridity – has risen to the top of the African electronic music scene and reinvented the “Ghana sound” for an increasingly beat-hungry audience. This month’s TALK PARTY will host the artists who have created their own brands of live-electro music from their bedrooms to the streets of Accra.

We toast The Alchemists who have established local and international scenes with their own homegrown genres. Come and party with the artists and creators performing at this year’s edition of IND!E FUSE and find out all you need to know about the December show.

Screening : EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP [2010]
The story of an obsession with street art that leads to a surprising adventure. Thierry Guetta, aka Mr. Brainwash, is an eccentric French shopkeeper and amateur filmmaker who journeys to locate and befriend internationally acclaimed and anonymous street artist, Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most famous graffiti artists at work.

DJ live session | Ice cold drinks on tap | Delicious food | Meet and Greet with cool folk!

Come out this Friday and Jam with us. #free

IND!E FUSE Returns DEC 12 – 14, 2013

by Billie McTernan | photos by Mantse Aryeequaye

*Double-click on images to enlarge.

Wanlov the Kubolor + M3NSA = FOKN BOIS. Photo taken in Central Accra

For those that are unfamiliar with IND!E FUSE, you should know that it is the country’s largest concert of independent artists that falls slap-bang in the middle of Ghana’s December party season.

When I came to Ghana in December 2012 it had been four years since I’d last visited the country. Up until that time I had been under the guardianship of family, shuttling from one family house to another, missing out on the vibrancy the city had to offer. I was looking forward to discovering an alternative experience.

Kojo-Cue keeps it Kumasi in central Accra

I had been in Ghana for less than a week before I attended IND!E FUSE. Many Ghanaians had been speaking about the concert on Twitter for weeks prior and I was curious to know what Accra had to offer.

The vibe was nothing short of electric. With a crucible of genres, I hadn’t realized that Accra was so diverse.

IND!E FUSE 2012: The ReCAP

We certainly had a grand time at IND!E FUSE 2012. Live performances by Tawiah, FOKN BOIS, Yaa Pono, Lady Jay, Lyrical Wanzam, Jojo Abot, Rumor and so much more deliciousness. Well, the good times have rolled around again and we are counting down to IND!E FUSE 2013.

This time, we’re bringing you a 3-day music event! Boy, do we have some goodies in store. While we are still in the kitchen whipping that brew, feast on this video recap of IND!E FUSE 2012. Let us know what you’re looking forward to at this year’s show.

The 4th Annual INDI!E FUSE features the coolest artists from Ghana and beyond in an exciting live music concert event. IND!E FUSE is the largest African indie music showcase in West Africa and highlights the best in hip hop, AfroBeat, traditional fusion, soul, electronic and rock music.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2013: THE GIRL WHO BROUGHT YOU KWAKU ANANSE

words by NANA OSEI KWADWO | images by MANTSE ARYEEQUAYE

The Kwaku Ananse premier in July was everything a film loving crowd would hope for ; great turn out, a participatory crowd and fierce music. The 26 minute short immortalizes the mythical spider by constructing a fresh narrative that retells this famous Ananse tale with multilayered, moody, elliptical shots of a wandering Jojo Abot, who plays Ananse’s daughter. The film suggests that stories normally seen through the lens of post-colonialism could just as easily be seen in existential or mythic terms.

For the record this film had the biggest turn out for an experimental Ghanaian picture, which is a refreshing start. Ghana isn’t known for experimental artsy movies and over the years John Akomfrah has been the only reference when such conversations came up. Our lame claim to his notoriety can stop now.

Adoma at the numbers station.

Akosua Adoma Owusu represents a new wave of filmmakers making bold attempts at disrupting the Ghanaian narrative in order to create new forms of story telling that involve risk taking. Hopefully these risks will explore new audiences and markets that would in turn create Ghanaian cinema the world looks forward to. This Kwaku Ananse story feeds our curiosities and creative interpretations made by the audacious individuals it features.

Grace Omaboe who plays Ananse’s wife has not been in a Ghanaian movie for years. At the height of her career, she was in a very popular TV drama series ‘OBRA’. Then through the mid to late 90’s she had a TV show “By The Fire Side” where she told Ananse stories to children. For the people old enough to remember, this film is like a time machine that travels into that past but tells the story in a sequence far removed from what a Ghanaian audience might be used to.

Another character worth mentioning in the movie is Highlife living legend Agya Koo Nimo who played Kweku Ananse. Koo Nimo brought such character volume to the 26 minute picture, it begged further exploration. That was four months ago, Adoma has since gone on to start new projects, but this is certainly worth the reminder.

We caught up with Akosua Adoma Owusu recently during our STROLLING GOATS episode and talked about film and her new projects.

AKOSUA ADOMA OWUSU hangs low on James Town Beach

What first interested you in film?

Well, my background was in the fine arts, specifically, printmaking and sculpture. I discovered my interest in filmmaking after studying 16mm Cinematography at the University of Virginia with an African American filmmaker, Kevin Jerome Everson. Kevin came from a working-class background – I identified with this in Virginia – and his work in experimental short films and traveling to film festivals really inspired me. So I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Film/Video and Art at CalArts against my parents’ wishes. They wanted me to be more practical and pursue a career in medicine like basically all Ghanaian parents. But creating art through a cinematic medium really spoke to me and impassioned me far more than any “practical” choice could have.