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Juls SoundZ

Thirty-seven tracks from a British-Ghanaian producer whose warm, unhurried records helped define the whole Afro-fusion sound. Juls is a curator as much as a beatmaker.

Juls

Julian Nicco-Annan was born in London to Ghanaian parents, spent formative years in Ghana, and has built a career that moves fluidly between Accra, Lagos and London. He is one of the small number of producers genuinely responsible for the sound that took over British and West African radio in the 2010s.

His signature is space and warmth. A Juls track typically has fewer elements than its peers — a highlife-derived guitar figure, a soft percussion bed, a bassline with real melodic movement — and it trusts the singer to fill the rest. That restraint is why his records sound less dated than a lot of what surrounded them.

He is also a genuine connector. The guest list across his catalogue reads like a map of the entire Afro-diaspora.

What to listen for

"Your Number" with King Promise and Mugeez is one of the records that established the Ghanaian side of the modern sound.

"Soweto Blues" with Busiswa and Jaz Karis takes its title from the Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela song about the 1976 Soweto uprising — a serious reference, and the track earns it.

"Love Language" with Mayra Andrade connects Ghana to Cape Verde, and Andrade sings in Cape Verdean Creole out of the morna tradition that produced Cesária Évora.

"Wishes" with Jah Cure and "Slow Down" with Agent Sasco bring Jamaica in, and "Chance" with Projexx and Tay Iwar is the loveliest thing here.

"My Size" assembles King Promise, DarkoVibes and Joey B — effectively the Accra alternative scene on one record.

"December" with Culan and Tay Iwar is named for the month when the Ghanaian and Nigerian diaspora return home, which has become a genuine cultural season.

"Nyafu Riddim" with Worlasi is the deepest cut and the most experimental.

Go deeper

Sounds of My World and Happy Place are the projects to hear.

Tay Iwar appears three times and is the single best onward recommendation on this list.

For the highlife roots underneath the guitar figures: Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas and Daddy Lumba. Ghana's musical history is deep, continuous, and far less documented internationally than Nigeria's.

A final observation about the guest list. Thirty-seven tracks taking in Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Cape Verde, South Africa and London is not an accident of booking — it is an argument about how connected these scenes actually are, made by a producer who moves between all of them. Read the credits as you listen; the map they draw is the point.

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