White Rabbit Group is hosting their weekly Havoc Thursday event this week (June 5th) at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana, CA. However, this week’s lineup is extremely special because a legendary headliner is coming to the Yost Theater. Crookers aka Phra (Francesco Barbaglia) is going to grace us with his presence with a killer set full of bass-heavy, electro house beats. However, the opening sets for this Thursday shouldn’t be forgotten and are on point for this event. Mikey Made is the first opening set who is a very dedicated DJ/producer and has a niche for house music, but also incorporating Tech and Deep House into his sound. DJ Precept (Alex Castro) is a resident DJ for White Rabbit Group and has performed at the Yost Theater numerous times. He has opened for many popular music producers in the EDM scene, such as Deorro, Zomboy, Chuckie, Congo Rock, Crizzly, Borgore, Designer Drugs, Le Castle Vania, Nero, Proxy, Skrillex, and more. Precept brings the high energy and heavy bass, massive bangers, and a variety of popular tracks/remixes, as well as his own, to start the party right. BONES (Trevor Moffitt) has been around for quite awhile in the EDM scene. He is a co-owner of Gotta Dance Dirty (EDM blog with many features) and he is signed to Dim Mak Records. BONES is also a resident DJ at Dim Mak Studios in Hollywood and at Avalon Hollywood. BONES has also performed at the Yost Theater and he and Precept both have experience performing at massive EDM festivals, such as Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas. Therefore, Precept and BONES are going to cause havoc performing together, back to back, as the main opening set for Crookers. Crookers is an Italian electronic music producer that got involved with music at a very young age and eventually he and former member Bot (Andrea Fratangelo) joined together in 2003 as the iconic duo Crookers and left more than a mark on an era. If you were into electro house, electronica, dance, or even any EDM that features clicks, whistles, spurs, synths in the mid to late 2000’s, you know who Crookers is. Crookers has released numerous original mixes and remixes on many famous record labels, such as Ciao Recs, LuckyBeard Records, Mad Decent, Man Rec, Fools Gold, Universal, OWSLA, and Ministry Of Sound. The list of original tracks is extensive, but some classic Crookers sound is heard in tracks such as “My Penny” (2008), “Knobbers” (2008), “Bust Em’ Up” feat. Savage Skulls (2011), and “Love to Edit” (2008). Crookers also produced many well-known remixes, such as “Fancy Footwork” (Crookers Remix) by Chromeo (2007), “We are Prostitutes” (Crookers Remix) by Adam Sky vs. Mark Stewart (2006), “The Cat” (Crookers Remix) by Dusty Kid (2006), “The Salmon Dance” (Crookers ‘Wow’ Remix) by The Chemical Brothers (2007). However, in 2008 one of their biggest remixes Crookers produced was Day ‘N’ Nite by Kid Cudi, which was literally heard at every festival set, club, radio station, and etc. for the next year. After almost ten years of Crookers featuring two people, Bot and Phra split up peacefully in 2012. Bot had decided to move on in his career, but Phra decided to continue to carry on the Crookers name and keep producing.
Recently, Phra has individually broken through with some original tracks, such as “Able to Maximize,” “Ghetto Guetta,” and “Heavy” (2014), as well as some original remixes, such as “Ode to Oi” (Crookers Remix) by TJR (2013). Although time has passed, Phra stays true to the unique sound that Crookers revolutionized. Crookers is going to be a little taste of the past and the present and it is going to be a hell of a show, especially at such a predominantly popular venue as the Yost Theater.
–Sierra Mirghanbari
ARTIST & TRENDS 