BOOKA SHADE TALK MORE!

It was a techno lover's wet dream at the Intercontinental Hotel's Atrium bar on the afternoon of the Future Music Festival. At the bar Sven Vath and Dubfire were downing Bloody Marys while The Prodigy's Liam Howlett ambled past casually. But Onion wasn't interested in three of the biggest figures in dance music as we were here to meet the German duo bound to excite many with their upcoming album More! Of course we are talking about Arno and Walter from Booka Shade, the Get Physical duo that were in town to headline The Likes Of You stage at Future with their live show.

Onion can safely say that Booka Shade’s upcoming album is a brilliant return to form. Gone are the introspective and cinematic influences that dominated their last album The Sun & The Neon Light. More! represents an upbeat Booka Shade inspired by their live show and wanting to create an album to make people dance. This is especially evident on the opening track Havana Sex Dwarf, which is an immediate and energetic opener that slaps you across the face with its hook instead of slowly drawing you in like the opening tracks on Booka Shade’s previous three albums.

“We said let’s start with the middle finger this time,” laughs Walter. “Many people are really surprised for sure. But sometimes you have to do what you feel but it was a long way to make this decision.”

“The three albums before they all started with moody tracks,” continues Arno, “Vertigo from the Memento album, Night Falls (from Movements) and Outskirts on The Sun & The Neon Light, which had the orchestra on there. So, these were all like epic intros that bring you into the album. This time we wanted to say, ‘Hey this is an energy album!’ And then slam it in your face.”

If anything the first taste of the album, Donut (the Booka Shade interpretation, which is different to the MANDY Vs Booka Shade version), is one of the most downbeat moments as Regenerate sounds like Massive Attack getting a rework by Slam while Scaramanga and LAtely look to be dancefloor anthems in the vein of In White Rooms and Body Language (well, maybe). More!’s tracks that Booka Shade road tested in Oz as part of the Future Music tour also went down well with audiences across the country.

“We are playing five new songs from the album including Donut,” explains Arno. “We played it this summer and you can see other people pick it up because they know it from the radio. It’s good we got radio support here (on Triple J). And then also to get the response from those songs that people don’t know but you can tell all right this is going to be a good one because the feedback’s been really good - although people are hearing it for the first time. One track, which is called Teenage Spaceman - it has had really good feedback.”

More! will be released on April 30 through Bandroom Records. The single Bad Love will be released on April 19. A longer interview with Booka Shade will be printed in an April edition of Onion Magazine.

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