Crookers On What They’re Going to Play At Stereosonic
Even other DJs can’t believe the popularity of Crookers in Australia. The Italians are countercultural pop stars. “They are?,” quizzes the US DJ Destructo, a fan himself. “I love it! That’s great. Good for them – they deserve it. Those dudes are outta hand. They’re funny!”
Crookers (Andrea “Phra” Fratangelo and Francesco “Bot” Barbaglia) have twice before headed Stereosonic – and they’re returning in 2011. They’ve also released two Onelove mix-comps for their Australian fanbase, most recently Mission Control. (And, early on, they aired a sneaky remix of the Aussie AC/DC’s Thunderstruck.) This tour Crookers will be spinning tracks from their latest project. “We’re gonna play all the Dr Gonzo album, for sure, because they’re the perfect tracks to get people crazy,” Phra announces. But you can count on hearing past Crookers classics, too.
Crookers emerged as stars of the blog-led fidget house phenomenon, though they preferred the tag “crooked house”. Originally from Omegna, on the shores of beautiful Lake Orta, Phra befriended Bot in Milan back in 2003. Crookers first aired the single End 2 End three years later, but it was Knobbers, and an influential mixtape, that placed them on the global map. They bumrushed their way into the mainstream with an enduring remix of KiD CuDi’s Day N Nite. It reached No. 2 in the UK singles charts and Top 20 here. (Crookers finally met Kanye West’s protégé in Chicago in late 2009 – and the emo-rapper jumped on their tune Embrace The Martian.) Crookers have since remixed everyone from U2 to Britney Spears to Lady Gaga (Telephone with Beyoncé).
The viral success of Day N Nite introduced Crookers to an urban industry enamoured of all things electro(nica). At the start of last year they presented their debut, Tons Of Friends, on Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried. The R&B maverick Kelis, long into her dance collabs, sang on the dubsteppy No Security. Crookers also teamed up with such diverse identities as will.i.am, Miike Snow and Róisín Murphy. The oddest name in the album’s credits? Ex-Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera, who now DJs as Mixhell, on We Love Animals with Soulwax. As Phra explains it, Brazilians and Italians have much in common culturally – the jam had to happen. The BBC praised the “100% party-focused” Tons… while wishing that it’d dropped sooner: “If you want four-to-the-floor ghetto bass, sleazy R&B, and the balls-out bravado of hip-hop slammed onto perverted techno, then you are in the right place.” Says Phra, “I think the album worked really well for us. I mean, everybody was expecting us to do club music and we delivered an album of some slightly different stuff. There were some people saying, ‘Oh no, they didn’t do a club album’ – and [then] there were some people saying, ‘Lucky, they did an album like this…’”
Crookers have wasted no time with Dr Gonzo. The title was vaguely inspired by Hunter S Thompson’s ‘gonzo’-style of music journalism. Crookers are going back underground with monster anthems like Bust ‘Em Up. The album’s ‘biggest’ contributor is Scottish DJ/producer Hudson Mohawke, whom Crookers met, coincidentally, at Stereosonic 2009. Phra is “super-happy” with it. “This is our take on club music right now – like us trying to twist what is pretty straight a little bit and put back the fun into our club stuff… It’s strange, fun work! (laughs)
Crookers are based in the fashion capital of Milan, but they favour their b-boy sportswear over couture. ”I know that a lot of people in fashion are playing our stuff,” Phra says. “We actually just played one [fashion] show with Róisín in London – I don’t even remember who for. But it was a fashion show. I wouldn’t say that we are not interested in it, but I prefer to go to a fashion party and get drunk than play there, fun-wise!”
Words: Cyclone