Lovers of African music will welcome the return of an icon. Active since the 1960s Ghanaian vocalist Thomas, whose past collaborators include legends such as Ebo Taylor and Tony Allen, keeps stellar company on a record that has maximum dancefloor appeal. Indeed the former contributes horn arrangements and the latter drum beats, and there is a firm emphasis on the pre-digital age version of the irresistible highlife sound that has proved insanely popular in West Africa and beyond for decades, largely because of the music's lithe, pulsating groove. Ripples of percussion, tightly drilled basslines and swirling brass make for a particularly vibrant backdrop to Thomas’ sweetly potent vocals in Fanti and Ashanti. Highlife may function as popular music but there is a degree of intricacy in its construction that will reward those who care to lend an ear to high standards of playing with the occasional burst of improvising. Along with the recent revival of the aforementioned Taylor, Thomas’ return to the fray makes the point that the heritage of West African music continues to live far beyond the discography of an immortal who ‘carries death in his pocket’, as the cognoscenti like to say about a certain Mr Kuti.