Berlin-based producers and live act Booka Shade have been at the forefront of contemporary dance music ever since their classic singles ‘Body Language’ (with M.A.N.D.Y.) and ‘Mandarine Girl’, together with the label they co-run, Get Physical, conquered the clubbing underground, then Ibiza, then the world. Three years later, Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger show no signs of slowing down: in the year gone by the duo completed their mammoth Movements world tour (which took in close to 150 shows over the course of 20 months, and sealed their reputation as one of the world’s most exciting and energetic electronic live acts), releasing the 12”s ‘Tickle’/’Karma Car’ and ‘Numbers’, both international radio and club hits, along the way. The latter was plucked from Booka Shade’s first mix CD, for the DJ-Kicks series, which was widely acclaimed and chosen both as DJ Magazine’s compilation of the year and Mixmag’s #2. The band released two remixes, of Dave Gahan’s ‘Kingdom’ and Dubfire’s ‘I Feel Speed’, which topped DJ charts all over the world.

This year is going to be a huge and hectic one for Booka Shade: in February they will release the ‘Movements Tour Edition’, which comprises the original 2006 hit album Movements together with a new live DVD, We Came To Dance, featuring a full live show filmed at Belgium’s Pukkelpop Festival last year, a revealing tour documentary and bonus tracks. The band unveil a new single in April, followed by a brand new studio album in May, their third to date. Then, having only just recovered from the ecstatic but shattering Movements tour, Booka Shade will pack their bags once again and set off to deliver their music live and direct to fans at festivals, clubs and concert halls around the globe on a new world tour.

Booka Shade are no newcomers to live performance: they’ve been a touring band ever since their formative synth-pop days in the early 90s. Seduced and converted by the house, techno and trance they were hearing in clubs around this time, Arno and Walter started releasing records on respected labels like R&S, Music Man, Tommy Boy and Sven Vath’s Harthouse, before scoring big hits with the
1993 trance classic ‘Una musica senza ritmo’ as Degeneration, and then
during the mid-90s on Dutch label Touché with the progressive tracks ´Kind
of Good´ and ´Silk´.

By the end of the 90s, Booka Shade were seeking a new, more personal outlet for their creative energies, and so founded Get Physical Music with DJ T. and their old friends Patrick Bodmer and Philipp Jung, aka M.A.N.D.Y.. Since Get Physical’s inception in 2002, Booka Shade have been at the production helm of countless releases by M.A.N.D.Y., DJ T., Sunsetpeople and Chelonis R. Jones, and the label has quickly grown to become one of the most respected and popular underground dance music labels around: releasing classic albums and singles by not just the aforementioned artists but also the likes of Samim, Lopazz, Fuckpony, Elektrochemie and Jona.

2004 saw the release of Booka Shade’s acclaimed debut album, Memento, on
Get Physical. This LP was met with a great deal of praise, but it was their seminal collaboration with M.A.N.D.Y, ‘Body Language’, that launched Booka Shade into the stratosphere. The track was an immediate underground hit, but over the course of 2005 it well and truly crossed over into more commercial climes – enjoying international radio, chart and club success, and awarded “Ibiza Track of the Season”. Booka Shade’s solo offering ‘Mandarine Girl’ became a bona fide club smash shortly after, and subsequent live performances at the 2005 Sónar festival in Barcelona and with Mylo in London led to an invitation to tour with Royksopp and warm up for Depeche Mode in Berlin.

Garnering massive props for both their original studio work and their live performances, Booka Shade have naturally become in-demand remixers, lending their production magic to the likes of Moby, The Juan McLean,
Yello, Hot Chip, Depeche Mode, Roxy Music, Dubfire, Tiga, Dave Gahan, Azzido
Da Bass and The Knife.

At the end of 2006 the UK’s leading electronic music website, Resident Advisor,
crowned Booka Shade Best Live Act as well as awarding them with the title of Best Album for their second long-player, Movements. The band’s most coherent and engaging work yet, Movements was released in May 2006 and featured the massive club hits ‘Mandarine Girl’ and ‘Body Language’, alongside new club anthems ‘Night Falls’, ‘In White Rooms’ and ‘Darko’. These tracks were among last year’s biggest dance tunes, and ‘In White Rooms’ and ‘Night Falls’ were the two top-selling EPs for worldwide vinyl distributor Intergroove in 2006. Pitchfork, the US music website, listed ‘In White Rooms’ among the best songs of the year, while closer to home, Germany’s ME Sounds ranked 2004’s ‘Vertigo’ amongst the ‘most important songs of all time’. Simultaneously Booka Shade enjoyed serious kudos from Groove Magazine’s end-of-year poll when they were selected as the second best producers of the year, and Movements was featured in their top 10 albums of the year. Germany’s top DJs voted the band as the country’s best live act; adding to overall acclaim for the album which helped to earn ‘Movements’ a nomination for the Plug Award in the US.

A showcase of the band’s musical depth and versatility, Movements was highly praised by US mag XLR8R: they championed it as one of the top 100 albums not just of the year, but of all time. Meanwhile, the ‘Movements’ tour has seen Walter and Arno perform and win over crowd after crowd at clubs and festivals around Europe, Australia, North and South America. They have captivated and conquered diverse audiences from The Montreux Jazz Festival to the Virgin Rock Festival and Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

With a new album under their belts, Booka Shade will be heading out on the road again this year. Make sure you join them for the ride.