Bibini Turns Out 3 Albums At A Go

Veteran music producer, Faisal Helwani has the knack for doing things in a big way. While other producers are struggling to get single albums of their clients out, Faisal has released three albums at a go on his Bibini Music record label.

To make the release even more unique, each album comes with an accompanying music video recording or every song on the album, thanks to a Metro TV collaboration which saw the artiste performing on TV.

The albums comes under three definite music types. They comprise of Gospel, Highlife and Afro Pop and they all highlight the great potential that are waiting to be discovered among many young artistes in Ghana.

That potential is there to see on the 24 songs on the collection. The “Gospel Gold Hits”, for example, boasts of the Black Angels, the very young duo whose ‘Tie Me Sufre’ easily foreshadows a successful career.

Similarly the strong opener of the gospel collection by Wofa Kay, titled ‘Not This Time’ and another by Mercy titled ‘Your Wonder’ are as good as one get from seasoned artiste.

From the “Highlife Golden Hits” album one gets a wide variety of styles all of them claiming to have their roots in highlife. Some succeed, others do not but one thing that comes out clearly is that the young artistes are bold and would not let go the opportunity to showcase their talents.

For example ‘Cross Crown’s Psalm 150’ is totally delivered as an instrument song using keyboards and atenteben. Paa Nii performs his ‘Suumu’ in Ga as Hamida performs ‘Bingalwa’ in Dagbani.

The Afro Pop Golden Hits album carry the widest range of music styles with hiplife/rap taking the largest share. For rap, ‘Adeshie’ by Adiyisem stands out very well for composition and delivery and for hiplife ‘Fama Me’ by B. Black comes up for notice.

One song on the Afro Pop collection that any listener is not likely to forget soon is ‘Meloon’ by the threesome who go by the name of Pimp Soldier. The song flies on a basic agbadza rhythm and is taken through a good flow, backed by remarkable stagecraft on the accompanying music video.

The artistes who featured on the three albums were selected from over 2000 young men and women who responded to a talent hunt notice earlier on this earlier on this year.

After auditioning, 34 artistes were selected, produced and put on Metro TV. Finally, the best songs were put on CDs.

This exercise is not the first that Faisal Helwani has done. Way back in early 70s he collaborated with the then Arts Council of Ghana to start a Pop Chain series for schools. Then in 2000, the series was revived which led to the discovery of some young talents. The current exercise appears of what Faisal began some 30 years ago.

The timing of the release of the current collection, however, has a poignant ring to it. Faisal’s son, Waleed Faisal Helwani, who worked on the project as co-producer tragically lost his life last September before this work was released.

To his memory, there, these album are dedicated and Bibini Music intends to use any benefits that accrue from their sale to set up a Waleed Helwani Foundation to promote excellence in music.

Veteran music producer, Faisal Helwani has the knack for doing things in a big way. While other producers are struggling to get single albums of their clients out, Faisal has released three albums at a go on his Bibini Music record label.

To make the release even more unique, each album comes with an accompanying music video recording or every song on the album, thanks to a Metro TV collaboration which saw the artiste performing on TV.

The albums comes under three definite music types. They comprise of Gospel, Highlife and Afro Pop and they all highlight the great potential that are waiting to be discovered among many young artistes in Ghana.

That potential is there to see on the 24 songs on the collection. The “Gospel Gold Hits”, for example, boasts of the Black Angels, the very young duo whose ‘Tie Me Sufre’ easily foreshadows a successful career.

Similarly the strong opener of the gospel collection by Wofa Kay, titled ‘Not This Time’ and another by Mercy titled ‘Your Wonder’ are as good as one get from seasoned artiste.

From the “Highlife Golden Hits” album one gets a wide variety of styles all of them claiming to have their roots in highlife. Some succeed, others do not but one thing that comes out clearly is that the young artistes are bold and would not let go the opportunity to showcase their talents.

For example ‘Cross Crown’s Psalm 150’ is totally delivered as an instrument song using keyboards and atenteben. Paa Nii performs his ‘Suumu’ in Ga as Hamida performs ‘Bingalwa’ in Dagbani.

The Afro Pop Golden Hits album carry the widest range of music styles with hiplife/rap taking the largest share. For rap, ‘Adeshie’ by Adiyisem stands out very well for composition and delivery and for hiplife ‘Fama Me’ by B. Black comes up for notice.

One song on the Afro Pop collection that any listener is not likely to forget soon is ‘Meloon’ by the threesome who go by the name of Pimp Soldier. The song flies on a basic agbadza rhythm and is taken through a good flow, backed by remarkable stagecraft on the accompanying music video.

The artistes who featured on the three albums were selected from over 2000 young men and women who responded to a talent hunt notice earlier on this earlier on this year.

After auditioning, 34 artistes were selected, produced and put on Metro TV. Finally, the best songs were put on CDs.

This exercise is not the first that Faisal Helwani has done. Way back in early 70s he collaborated with the then Arts Council of Ghana to start a Pop Chain series for schools. Then in 2000, the series was revived which led to the discovery of some young talents. The current exercise appears of what Faisal began some 30 years ago.

The timing of the release of the current collection, however, has a poignant ring to it. Faisal’s son, Waleed Faisal Helwani, who worked on the project as co-producer tragically lost his life last September before this work was released.

To his memory, there, these album are dedicated and Bibini Music intends to use any benefits that accrue from their sale to set up a Waleed Helwani Foundation to promote excellence in music.