Crookers - Tons Of Friends

We’ll admit that we erred on the side of caution (or the side of the Crookers’ detractors rather) in anticipating the debut album from the brash Italian duo. Over the last few years, they’ve made a name for themselves with a signature sound that took the fidget house sound of Switch, Trevor Loveys and Herve and made it even more deranged and cartoon-like that it already was. They eschewed the funk-factor of those pioneers and went for something that was more akin to hard house or old skool rave pitched down and reinterpreted for the A.D.D., nu-rave generation. Sometimes they shined, other times they just irritated – but above all, you always got the sense that they were just having a laugh, and not taking themselves too seriously.
 
The balance has shifted with their debut album, probably in no small part thanks to the fact that they are now internationally-recognised and desired producers who have been rubbing shoulders with the hip-hop glitterati (the ones who wanted a slice of the dance pie anyway). But this LP shows that there’s more to them than we previously thought. At their most experimental they prove to be engrossing and talented – Lone White Wolf with Tim Burgess being a good example, a dusty lo-fi slice of post-trip-hop that’s a world away from the likes of We Are Prostitutes or Day & Night. Speaking of which, the acapella version of Day & Night featuring some Dutch dudes who did their version on YouTube and got spotted by Crookers, is a lot of fun and more inventive way to draw the album to a close than including that remix.
 
As for guests, they appear on every track (hence the title), and the quality is generally high and fruitful. Roisin Murphy, who’s been recording solo material with the Crookers, smoulders as usual, oozing pure sexiness over the half-time bump of Hold Up Your Hand and the fist-pumping wailing and old skool bass synths of Royal T. A pitched-up Rye Rye works it hard over the electro hip-hop / deep dubstep fusion of Hip-Hop Changed¸ Yelle adds some wonderfully quirky French flavour and harmony on the very un-Crookers-like Cooler Coleur, the whole thing coming across like Nôze jamming with Manu Chao. In a good way. The multi-lingual theme continues with The Very Best adding African flavour and Marina & Dargen Damico toasting in Portuguese on Birthday Bash. Jump Up with Major Lazer, Leftside and Supahype is as much bouncy dancehall fun as it was on Major Lazer’s album.
 
That’s not to say the album doesn’t have its weak moments. Natural Born Hustler (with Pitbull), Let’s Get Beezy (with Will.i.am / Zuper Blahq saying “yo” and “boom boom boom” a lot) are pretty revolting, for example. In fact it’s that dance/rap crossover style that shows them at their weakest. It’s got the most contrived feel to it, making no amends about the attempts to gatecrash the commercial world. Fair enough, but the best bits on this album are when they’re being a bit more…original Tee-Pee Theme with Drop The Lime is obviously a bit of joke, but it’s just rubbish.
 
There’s a few too many tracks here (twenty), and if they’d cut out some of the guff instead of grabbing every guest they could get their hands on, it could have had a bit more impact. Still, at its best it’s refreshing and innovative and well balanced between dancefloor and home listening. It won’t give you a headache, for the most part. And what’s shown here – although detractors will choose to overlook it – they are clearly very talented producers, and not just the one-trick ponies that many assumed. Let’s see where they go from here. 
 
[LISTEN TO AND BUY THIS ALBUM IN THE PLAYER BELOW]