DJ Auntie Flo and his Highlife club are part of a loose worldwide crew blending global and electronic beats, and creating something completely new in the process
If a DJ can play Chicago house next to Detroit techno or German electro without anyone missing a beat, then why shouldn’t they also drop some Angolan kuduro, Brazilian baile funk or South African kwaito into the mix? That’s the philosophy behind the crossover dance scene spearheaded by Highlife, a club with more passport stamps than David Attenborough’s cameraman. Five years since its first night at Glasgow’s Stereo, the club’s mix of UK funky, Afrofuturism and Middle Eastern beats has built a mini empire that extends to a compilation series and Rinse FM radio show.
Since then, its influence has spread across the globe in nights and labels such as Paris’ Mawimbi, Amsterdam’s Malawi, Sheffield’s Banana Hill and Montreal’s Multi Culti. While previous musical movements flared up around certain clubs or suburbs, this loose worldwide collective of virtual crate-diggers are brought together by their desire to lift international artists out of the ghettoising “world music” box and on to the dancefloor. To that end, Highlife have produced ‘World Series’ records in Cuba, Kenya and Uganda The result of their open-door policy to musical immigration is a reconfiguration of the idea of world music, shaking off the shadow of neo-imperialism that the term has carried since it was invented in 1987.
Continue reading...by Kevin EG Perry via Electronic music | The Guardian
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