Highlife Time Vol. 2

“Highlife has always been with us (Nigerians), at least since the guitar or mandolin banjo was introduced to our folk,” wrote the Nigerian journalist Benson Idonije in the liner notes of this sparkling highlife overview. Views from the Ghanaian side of the debate over the music’s patrilineage are also weighed. The winner is everybody listening — the tracks slip between the early fifties and middle eighties without alarming the cochlea, and when Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Titibitis of Africa’s “Ogiobo” comes on, you’ve never heard anything so junkyard-funky in your life.