When we did the photoshoot together with Roog & Greg of Hardsoul for the Amsterdam In The House compilation we came up with the brilliant idea to do a collaboration with the guys.
So the next day they sent us some cool parts of a track they had been working on. We beefed up the beats, added strings and bass, and before we knew it the heads at the Choco Labs were bouncing. The result: R2G2.

Available now @ Beatport.com, defected.com and traxsource.com as part of the Amsterdam In The House compilation

R2G2 by Chocolate Puma

“One of the wonders of the sheer vastness of house music is the discovery of hidden nuggets in even the most obvious of places. You wouldn’t imagine that a record produced by Louie Vega and released on Strictly Rhythm could be undiscovered in any way, but Bass Tone has been a secret well kept by an unlikely duopoly of US house heads and UK garage ragamuffins ever since it came out in the mid 90s. Here Vega’s early venture into starker, more experimental sounds by way of breaking glass and sirens is taken further along the road of wonderful weirdness by H.O.S.H. and given a controlled dose of musical steroids by Chocolate Puma. ”

Having no parts or multitrack of the original recording, and doing al kinds of geeky trickery and filtering to isolate the sounds was the easy part. Remixing a real classic and one of our favourite Louie Vega records was the hard part! So we did our best trying to capture the spirit, trademark sounds and beats of the original record while updating it for today’s dancefloors. For the deeper crowds we also provided a dubbier version. Hope you like!

Get it @ Beatport.com

In this video guide of Amsterdam Hardsoul and yours truly take you to our favourite places in Amsterdam:

Panama Club
Papabubble – Candy store
Patta – Cool clothing store
Nesoptiek – Opticians
Foam – Photography Museum of Amsterdam
Restaurant Dauphine
Pieter Cornelisz Hoofenstraat – The main high fashion shopping street
Club Paradiso
Universe on a T-shirt – Custom T-Shirt shop
Amsterdam Harbour

All these places and many more can also be found in the booklet that’s coming with the Defected Amsterdam In The House double CD.

On saturday the 22nd we’ll be playing at the Defected area at Lakedance in Best, The Netherlands.
The next day, the whole Defected crew moves to Bloomingdale at Bloemendaal beach to launch the upcoming Amsterdam In The House compilation. Nice!

Defected Records dedicates its 30th compilation to Amsterdam. The double cd Defected In The House presents Amsterdam 09 is mixed by our friends Roog & Greg of Hardsoul and yours truly.
The double album will be released on august 28th and comes with a booklet with all of Hardsoul’s and our favourite spots in Amsterdam.

We all put a lot of effort and hard work into this mix. Expect lots of exclusives and edits especially made for this compilation. Some of them will be available as separate download.

Here’s an overview with some comments of our part of the compilation:

1. Fresh Tunes #1 – Ha Ha (CP Re-edit)
We originally released this back in 1993 as a white label, and later licensed it to Strictly Rhythm. This is a cool edit we did for our DJ-sets.

2. Basco – Only You (TGM Remix – CP Re-edit)
Back in the 90’s Basco was our breakbeat project. We still play the TGM mix of this song, but we thought it needed some more oompf. So we did an edit and remastered it, and is know a perfect warm-up for our sets.

3. Chocolate Puma – Whohadnuffdrums’ – Chocolate Puma – Dub of Boom / Michel Cleis Ft. Totó La Momposina – La Mezcla
So here’s 3 tracks on top of each other. Shovell banging the drums on Whohaddrums, the mad sounds of Dub Of Boom and the cool percussion of La Mezcla.

4. Chocolate Puma – Route’ – Louie Vega and Jay – Sinister / Sealee starring Julie McKnight – Diamond Life (Accapella)
This track was originally a remix we did a few years ago for a certain major label, but it was rejected. We still liked the backing track, so we threw away the original vocals and put the lovely Julie McKnight on top.

5. Bassjackers – Sujo’ (Bart B More Balkan Edit – CP Refix) / Todd Terry presents CLS – Can You Feel It (Accapella)
Very cool track by Dutch producers Bassjackers. We like the bassdrum pattern. Bart B More did the Balkan Edit, and we fixed it with some extra drums and the Can You Feel It vocals.

6. Sole Fusion – Bass Tone (Chocolate Puma Remix)
This was a tough one, remixing one of our favourite classics by Sole Fusion. But in the end it works very well!

7. Jark Prongo – Big Bam Boom
A track we did under our Jark Prongo moniker. We did this track a few years ago, but it never got released. We always play it in our sets, so we thought it was time to bring it out. Minimal bad-ass crunk tech.

8. Bingo Players vs Chocolate Puma – Disco Electrique (Vocal Mix)
Our biggest track since Miami. Still ripping dancefloors.

9. Sil – Dirty Windows’ (Chocolate Puma Remix) / Enzyme Black – I Can See The Light (Accapella)
One of Zki’s first records, a collab he did with Olav Basoski. Recently we gave it the CP treatment.

10. Chocolate Puma – I Wanna Be U (2009 Rework)
Our first Chocolate Puma release. Hit the UK chart at #6 in 2001. Featured here is our 2009 rework, which hopefully captures the same feeling, but has tighter and a more up to date production.

11. Chocolate Puma – Bugel
Another exclusive. Nice, dubby and a bit weird. That’s how we like it.

12. Chocolate Puma Ft. Shermanology – Only Love Can Save Me (Dub)
The dub of this collab with the mighty Shermanology.

13. Chocolate Puma vs Baggi Begovic Ft. Mitch Crown – Solarianism
And yet another exclusive. First time we’re doing a collab with housemaster Baggi and the incredible Mitch, and we think it turned out prety good! Also check the collab we did with Hardsoul. It’s featured on their CD and it’s called R2G2.

14. Chocolate Puma – Morning Rain (Moist Dub Bonus Beats) / Bart Claessen – First Light (Chocolate Puma Chords) / Chocolate Puma – Believe (Accapella)
Here we put another 3 songs together. The Moist Bonus Beats of Morning Rain always work very well, and combined with the chords of our remix for First Light and vocals of Always & Forever singer David, it got even better.

15. Shovell & The Latin Hooligans – Soul Makossa (Chocolate Puma Remix)
Still a favourite on our dancefloors. Tribal saxophone on acid.

16. Klement Bonelli & Brahms – Los Chicanos (Main Mix) / D.H.S. – House Of God ($50 Mix)
When we got the bootleg Koen Groeneveld did of House Of God we thought it was massive. The same goes for Bonelli & Brahms’ Los Chicanos. So when we mashed the 2 together it ended up in total mayhem.