![]() ![]() Even serious Nigerian music heads will know only a few of the bigger names such as Victor Uwaifo, The Funkees and Celestine Ukwu, but the lesser known artists are in no way overshadowed. Compiler and label boss Miles Cleret avoids the obvious juju/apala/Afro-beat scenes also very active at the time, concentrating as the title indicates on the rather psychedelic, 'western'-influenced Afro-rock and the more gentle, loose-limbed highlife typical of the period, mostly by musicians from east of Lagos. By the mid '80s, the home grown recording industry would be in serious decline, but this entertaining 2CD set reminds us how vibrant things were, mining a vein overlapping that of Honest Jons' 2005 releases, Lagos Chop Up and Lagos All Routes – with the added bonus of informative sleeve notes that you can actually read, and reproductions of colourful cover art. Shortly after the disastrous Biafran war and before the profits from Nigeria's oil boom were completely squandered, laundered, sequestered or stolen, Nigerian music was on a roll.
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