Crookers present: Dr Gonzo

Something happened in the electro scene some time around 2008 that is possibly best explained by listening to Day N Night, the Kid Cudi vs Crookers track which pretty much kickstarted Crookers’ career. Their “monster”, they joke. It’s harder to pinpoint exactly when it began, but, at some point, drops became bigger and earlier, basslines less compressed, and every mutated copycat now came with the added option of including a female vocal screeching on about binge drinking. Electro ‘bangers’ were passed around the Radio 1 office, cheesy student union DJs and crappy clubs vomiting out Jäegerbomb promos, fast becoming what the electroclash mash-up was to the first half of the decade.

Alongside Herve, Jesse Rose and the fidget house crew, Crookers (Italian DJs Bot and Phra) had been brewing up quality ‘hip-house’ tracks since they began working together in 2003, whacking out three EPs, including the celebrated Knobbers, in 2008. Their best remixes (think Busy P, Chromeo) are arguably still valid staples of the record bag. But, with debut album Tons Of Friends ready to drop, interviews started filtering through in which they were less than enthusiastic about that whole sound. Especially considering they, if not invented it, then most definitely fronted it for the best part of the past four years. "We’re trying to find a way to go back but still be new..." Bot mused to a bewildered Clash journalist.

If they were feeling a frustration about the sheer number of crap copycats out there, they counteracted it in two ways: by following their glut of 2008 remixes with the “fun” (Britney, U2, Lady Gaga) or “more mature” ones (Two Door Cinema Club); and, by smothering themselves in their much documented, much flaunted hip hop roots, with the album featuring Major Lazer, Poirier, Spank Rock, will.i.am and Kid Cudi. Wannabe producers take note – in times of moral (musical) panic, nothing salvages the soul like referencing your Credible Musical Roots.

I don't think anyone was surprised when current project Dr Gonzo emerged at the start of this year. “It began as an EP, Bust 'Em Up, but we got carried away and it's being made into an album," says Bot. "We started working with Savage Skulls and other people [Wax Motif, Neoteric] ended up getting involved. It's a great feeling because we're making club tracks but in a new way. That's what's really inspiring and interesting right now.”

If Tons Of Friends was the Skins party that makes the 6 o’clock news, Dr Gonzo is the make-or-break moment when the booze has run out and your best mate for the night has been playing the same track on repeat for the past hour. You know it’s never going to be the same, but there’s nothing to do but embrace it; it’s time to make a move. “We’re very much still continuing what we're doing, making club tracks that make people dance,” Bot consoles, “but in a way that's fresh. It’s an added bonus if people enjoy it and are happy with it.”

You’ll either love it or hate it. It's fun, cartoonish, 3D, all screaming CMYK sounds and oversized Nike hi-tops, and with Savage Skulls sharing a love of "cheesy hooks, bouncy beats, and fat bass lines," it's hard to see how it could differ from Crookers’ previous stuff. As Bot reminds me, "Gonzo is still Crookers. It's crazy how you change a name and people expect everything to be different.”

But there are key differences. This is sparser, stripped down Crookers. It owes more to techno than house: there are no massive dirty drops, instead relying on clean, brain-damaging repetition. What's really nice, though, are the rapping dancehall snares, crisp ghettotech claps and baille funk beats threading the parts together. Bass is now an enhancement, not the track's sole reason for being.

Similarly, the hip-hop element of tracks off Tons Of Friends have been stripped of radio friendly vocal hooks and replaced, in Springer for instance, with sounds; boingy sounds, as if the Klaxons have stumbled across a sampler and a bucketful of MDMA, and not necessarily in that order. Get The Fuck Out, paying tribute to the new moniker’s Fear And Loathing reference, centres upon a ketamine-washed slurring of the track's title.

So, why the change? "That's evolution,” Bot sums up succinctly. “It's actually more difficult to repeat the same song over and over. When people do that I can see they're kind of freaking it, just repeating their success with something by cloning it and making another version of the same thing.”

So, where did the influences in Dr Gonzo come from? Are they simply cloning the new sounds making the rounds in dance music right now? "No, it’s more than that. There’s some French house like Canblasters, but yes, of course, Major Lazer... we actually did a track with them. It's everything that's around, but it takes elements from everything and puts them together in a way that's different.”

For a duo who have spent their public career labelled as ‘hip-house’, it could well be seen as a two-fingers-in-the-air move. Only time, and the fickle nature of today’s club crowd, will tell. Having resolutely championed hip hop despite an almost non-existent scene in his home town of Milan (his words), they don't seem the types to change according to the trends. Are they trying to actively escape their “monster” genre with this project? “No, it's about being open to every influence, every contamination between different genres, so it's pretty much never ending. There's infinite possibilities.”

If Gonzo means they descend as suddenly as they ascended, then so be it, it seems. We talk about club trends popping up, and he mentions the main one he’s noticed in the last year: “Everyone is more open. They’re up for moving away from classic 4/4 beats, by which I mean the classic kick-snare-kick-snare, and it seems to be a recent change. They may not know how to dance to it but they're definitely more open to it.”

One influence that hasn’t ‘contaminated’ the Gonzo stuff is precisely that wonky sound; have they had to tailor their sets to get the crowds interested? “Not really, because we're playing our new tracks that are pretty much made like that, and we've found people have been really receptive. A year ago it was definitely more difficult. Now we’re getting the reaction from the people.”

From the excitement a Crookers set generates in Glasgow, I think it’s safe to say the duo’s new tracks will be appreciated. Is he looking forward to a warm reaction at Death Disco this month? “I remember a beer bottle almost hitting me in the face last time. I was scared, but the guy said, no, it's because he's happy. Well, OK then, if that's the way that you share your happiness, that's fine...

“No, but seriously, people are warmer in Scotland. It's a good vibe.”