Over the past 20 months, West African highlife has witnessed a resurgence of sorts in the hip-life works of Mr Eazi, RunTown and most notably, Tekno‘s neo-highlife progression popularised as the ‘pon-pon’ sound.

At the risk of sounding cliché, Suedeoff‘s new track, “Weekend” doesn’t seem like the typical high-life-inspired Afropop sound. Firstly, the guitar chords that should usually serve as a baseline for any high-life-inspired composition are decidedly absent. Though soft drums, backup vocals and highlife’s melody requirement are all fused into the final output for “Weekend”, the track thrives mostly on synths and pianos.

Suedeoff manages, however, to keep some of the folk themes expected from highlife on “Weekend”, casually flirting with the idea of short time romance and imploring listeners to hold their loved ones close. Like this, Suedeoff attempts to add a new twist to the same mid-tempo sound we have been enjoying for a minute without using some of the same tricks we have heard elsewhere.

Stream Suedeoff‘s “Weekend” via SoundCloud here

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