The Cavemen’s new album Cavy in the City dropped on 31 October, and it feels like a confident return to form for the duo: Kingsley Okorie on bass and Benjamin James on drums. Known for reimagining traditional highlife with live instrumentation and rich nostalgia, the brothers once again build on what they’ve always done best.
The project opens with a warm homage to the legends: Rex Lawson, Celestine Ukwu, Osita Osadebe, and Oliver De Coque, instantly grounding it in the music’s roots. Sonically and visually, the record leans into that vintage spirit. Even the cover art, like Show Dem Camp’s Afrika Magic, nods to old Nigerian poster design with its bold, grainy, and proudly analogue look.
Compared to their last album, Love and Highlife (2024), which experimented more with contemporary sounds and collaborations, this one feels closer in spirit to their debut Roots, which is familiar and more faithful to the traditional highlife rhythms that first made fans fall in love.
Their latest album, Cavy in the City, arrives as a confident extension of what they’ve always done best: traditional highlife music reimagined through live instrumentation, arranged sounds, and nostalgia.
The Cavemen are students of sound. Their live-band approach gives the album a steady rhythm, powered by drums, deep basslines, and proper jazz-style. Here, they lean even deeper into highlife, less genre-blending, more focus. The songs blend into each other in a way that’s good enough, although there’s still a little sonic interruption here and there. Those interruptions are enough to distinguish certain tracks.
Production-wise, Cavy in the City is good. The mixing isn’t glossy or overdone; it’s a sort of warm music that fits a Sunday afternoon gathering more than a club night. The Cavemen aren’t trying to modernise highlife, either. They’re preserving it while giving it motion.
Despite the album title, Cavy in the City doesn’t build a clear concept around urban life or transition. Instead, it feels like a loose collection of moments and moods. The interludes do a lot of the heavy lifting, keeping the flow from track to track.
The standout collaborations work smoothly within that flow. Angelique Kidjo on Keep on Moving adds her signature sound, while Pa Salieu brings structure to Gatekeepers. Neither feature disrupts The Cavemen’s sound; they simply expand it.
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