- Highlife is Huntleys and Palmer's newly minted sub-label, bringing its parent label's laid-back attitude to bear on a series of 12-inches. The debut release was a brace of club edits from Auntie Flo, and on its second releas, they drop a pair of edits from Basel's Hinterhof club resident DJs Mehmet Arslan and Alma Negra.
The first is Mehmet Aslan's edit of Turkish rock musician Cem Karaca's "Raptiye Rap Rap" (here called "Raptiye Rap"). The original's richly synthesised string passages and winding vocal need little work, and Aslan's modifications are minimal. He adds shakers and snares that counter the dubby bassline and warm kicks. Similarly, Alma Negra's edit of Cortijo And His Time Machine's salsa track "Carnaval" doesn't mess too much with a good thing. The original is recast as a slow-burning jam, Alma Negra adding little more than a bassline to the already raucous mix of horns, tumbling drums and call-and-response vocals. Both edits do exactly what they should: render original tracks club-ready, without stripping away their original charm.
TracklistA Mehmet Aslan - Raptiye Rap
B Alma Negra - Carnaval