Words by Rishi Bonneville Full article on Large Up homepage.
For a century, German brands have been known for their steely precision, quality and expense. Vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche, for example, can be found in every corner of the globe, flossed by the successful and idolized by the striving. Iconic artists like Kraftwerk have found success internationally by translating these archetypally German traits into musical form. But after the re-unification of East and West in the mid-90s, German youth began rethinking this technocratic image. In the midst of it all, an unexpected new counterculture bubbled up in Deustchland: reggae. The Cologne-based Mighty Pow Pow productions, vocalist Gentleman, and the clash sound Sentinel from Stuttgart (the 2005 World Clash winners) are amongst those who built a creative and respected scene even without the colonial migration that drives London and Parisian nightlife. Until recently, however, other Caribbean music styles–soca, calypso, zouk–were off the radar. With hard work and vibes to spare, two young men from Berlin have begun to change all that. LARGE UP recently sat down with the Berlin-based duo Soca Twins to talk about history, the 2006 World Cup, and how they party.
LARGE UP: Firstly, who are the Soca Twins?
FRANKY: The Soca Twins are Franky Fire (DJ) and Boone Chatta (MC) from Berlin, Germany. I founded Soca Twins in 2002 together with another DJ. The name came up since we looked alike and danced in the same style. So, people started to call us “Twins.” The “Soca” was predetermined since we were the first soca sound in Germany. After personal changes, Boone Chatta became my other ‘twin’ in early 2005 and rocks the mic ever since.
Q: What is the history of soca and calypso in Germany?
BOONE: Barney Millah was the first DJ to play soca in Germany at the turn of the century. But his sets were mainly reggae & dancehall. There was a famous underground club called “Subground” where Franky and I heard soca for the first time. The first ’strictly’ soca party was in 2002 and Franky played with Barney. I was there, but we didn’t even know each other back then. But a few years later, the love for soca music has brought us together.
FRANKY: If you look at the mainstream newspapers, TV, radio…soca is not present at all in Germany. But we’ve built up a crowd of fanatics and it’s getting bigger every day. Our hometown Berlin has the biggest soca crowd in Germany. But everywhere we play, we meet lots people who have been listening to our soca mixes for years. We have seen a lot of German cities go crazy. Colonge, Stuttgart, Leipzig, only to name a few, but also smaller cities. Our mission now is to take it to the next level; get soca out of the underground and into mainstream.
BOONE: And we’ve been playing with a lot of soca artists in Germany in the past years. Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin, Fay Ann Lyons, Rupee, Benjai, Problem Child, Skinny Fabulous, KMC, Jamesy P and many more and they all said our crowd is crazy. They know the songs, wave rags, drink rum, and might be a little misbehavin’ like it’s Carnival.
Read the rest on Large Up Homepage, and listen to Soca Twins Parang mix!
Click here.
Dont forget to check
Boone Chatta
Soca Twins
websites too!
No comments:
Post a Comment