And what kind of music world is it where the most soulful dance jams of the year have their U.S. break-even point calculated at 1000 sales? A chauvinistic one. Featuring three mid-'70s and three mid-'80s cuts by permutation of Nigeria's Oriental Brothers International, Heavy on the Highlife! is the only release in Original Music's quixotic distribution deal with Lagos's Afrodisia label that isn't basically archival. Maybe Americans can pass off the harmonic and rhythmic attractions of the guitar-hooked four-minute earlier selections as charm, but as the three recent ones sustain for a full album side apiece, their bodies and spirits will sink or swim. When Dan Satch Opara picks up the guitar beat from yet another angle or Sir Warrior Opara shouts out another variation on his eternal theme, I say yeah. Honoring an apt rock and roll tradition, the three titles fade rather than resolve. In a perfect world they'd go on forever.

Playboy, Nov. 1990

Oct. 1990

Dec. 1990