Catching Up With Crookers

Italian beat-makers, Phra and Bot, formed the unlikely Crookers in 2003. A hip-hop influenced duo hailing from Milan, Italy, they’ve since made quite a name for themselves through their deep, mutated take on house music. It’s now the tail end of 2011 and Crookers are celebrating the release of their forthcoming LP, ‘Dr Gonzo,’ here in Room One this Friday – a room that played host to their first performance outside of Italy some years ago – and in anticipation we caught up with the producers to ask them a few questions. You describe your forthcoming album, ‘Dr Gonzo’, with the Italian word ‘accrocchio’ – talk us through the definition and why you use this word to describe the LP? The word is incorrectly used as are the sounds of this album. The idea of doing something in the wrong way, but so wrong that it sounds right has always fascinated us. We went back to what we like to do the most while producing music, which is putting together more elements that apparently don't go well together and arrange them in a way that makes sense; having fun trying to push sounds into an unknown area. You collaborated with Lucky Me and Warp’s, Hudson Mohawke, on one track. What made you decide to team up for ‘Hummus’? We met the man on a tour in Australia a while ago and as we already were fans of his music we started to talk and getting to know each other. ‘Hummus’ happened because Hudmo had this beat with lots of potential on a club level but needed something more in order to really work, we think we provided what it lacked and so far it's already giving us satisfaction when we play it. Who would you like to work with next? And who’s been great to work with so far? Feature spots are best when they happen spontaneously, that's what we’ve learned and it's how we're going to move on in the future. We learned a lot from almost everyone we collaborated with and speaking of the ‘Dr Gonzo’ album it's been particularly good to be in the studio with Style of Eye and Carli from Savage Skulls; lots of laughs and good tracks! When listening to your music, I can hear a lot of hip-hop influence. Who are you into hip-hop wise at the moment and who’s inspiring you? Both of us come from that world, me (Bot) as a graffiti writer and Phra was into turntablism and MCing. I’ve been listening to Thundercat's new album lately, a guy from the LA/Flying Lotus scene. I'm not even sure that can be described as hip hop, but who cares anyway, it's good! You’re playing here at fabric this Friday for ‘Jack Beats Love’ in Room One. What have you got in store for it? LOTS of new material, including the remaining unreleased tracks of the ‘Dr Gonzo’ album and some upcoming remixes. We're also going to test UK's reaction to juke, some 160 bpm's booty shaking interlude. Catch Crookers in Room One this Friday. Photo: Giorgio Calace