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Photo by Denise Van Deesen<\/p>\n
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It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise where Arno Kammermeier, one half of the Grammy-nominated live electronic duo Booka Shade<\/a>, was when New Times <\/em>called him. \u201cI\u2019m in the studio preparing for a show,\u201d he cheerfully replied from the south of France.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is always a need to practice when it comes to music making \u2014 not even Kammermeier and his partner, Walter Merziger\u2019s forty-year-long career, can eclipse the need to keep testing the limits. And it\u2019s this awareness in Booka Shade\u2019s craft, combined with decades of groove-ridden music, that has kept the duo so fresh. It\u2019s also the reason why seeing the two perform at North River\u2019s ZeyZey on October 17 is a must.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to return to Miami,\u201d says Kammermeier. \u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re playing a lot of songs from our recent album, For Real<\/em>. What we always do is a mix of the new stuff and the classics.\u201d Kammermeier adds that the two have recently reactivated dormant tracks in their shows. \u201cWe played \u2018Darko\u2019 for the first time in years. We\u2019ve brought back some of the old times after hearing a lot of requests. We\u2019re excited to hear the feedback from the crowd.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kammermeier and Merziger met in school as teenagers in Frankfurt, Germany. Both were music lovers, particularly of synth-pop bands. Naturally, they formed a two-member band called Planet Claire<\/a>. As New Times <\/em>wrote back in 2009<\/a>, Planet Claire \u201cdelivered a sound that was steeped in the dance-rock crossover of Depeche Mode and company.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n By the 1990s, they adopted their Booka Shade moniker. Their first album, Momento<\/em>, was released in 2004, marking their debut on their then-new label, Get Physical. The album was a sprawling, dub-laden, acidic, house blend that showed the world just how effortlessly Booka Shade could transcend genres.<\/p>\n Later tracks, \u201cIn White Rooms,\u201d \u201cBody Language,\u201d and their \u201cO Superman\u201d remix, became dance floor hallmarks with the duo\u2019s eclectic synth work and clubby drum patterns. They landed in Miami for the first time in 2006 for the Winter Music Conference, where they performed a live show with the band Hot Chip at the late Miami Beach spot, Pawn Shop.<\/p>\n