Chocolate Puma are a DJ and music production duo from Haarlem, North Holland, consisting of René ter Horst ("DJ Zki") and Gaston Steenkist ("Dobre"). Their stage names include "Zki & Dobre", "The Good Men", and "Riva".
Chocolate Puma | |
|---|---|
 Chocolate Puma performing at the Sony Stage of the Oldenbora 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Good Men (or The Goodmen) Zki & Dobre Klatsch! Rhythm Killaz Tomba Vira Riva Jark Prongo F-Action René et Gaston DJ Manta |
| Origin | Haarlem, North Holland, Netherlands |
| Genres | House, dance, electronic |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Labels |
|
| Members | Gaston Steenskist ("Dobre") René ter Horst ("DJ Zki") |
Zki & Dobre have produced dance music under various group names since the early 1990s. Their most notable productions are "Give It Up" (1993) credited to The Good Men, "I Wanna Be U" (2001) credited to Chocolate Puma, and "Who Do You Love Now?" (2001) credited to Riva, and featuring Dannii Minogue. They also founded their own record label, Pssst Music.
Musical career
editAs the Goodmen, their most notable production was "Give It Up", a 1993 house music track based upon samba-styled percussion and the simple, repeating vocal line of the song title. The percussion was inspired by a Sérgio Mendes recording.
The song rose to #1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1993 and made a brief appearance on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #71. When re-released in late 1993, "Give It Up" reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart.[1]
Various monikers
editHorst and Steenkist are also known under many aliases including:
- The Good Men (alternatively The Goodmen) with a string of hits that started with the hit "Give It Up" in 1993 making it to number 5 on the UK Singles Charts, number 1 on the US Dance charts and number 71 in the US Hot 100. The follow-up "Damn Woman" charted in the Dutch charts in 1994. The Good Men also released the 1994 album Father in the Bathroom.
- René Et Gaston (based on their given names René ter Horst and Gaston Steenskist) with the hit "Vallée de larmes" in 1993
- Klatsch! (with the hits "Oh Boy" in 1993 and "God Save the Queer" in 1994
- F-Action, a musical project in cooperation with Ramon Zenker from Hardfloor, the best known hit being "Let's Get Closer Baby".
They also created JP Records and psst Records and finally Groove Alert founded by Dobre.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, they appeared in a new set of projects and monikers
- Basco, a Big Beat musical project resulting in the album High Involvement
- Jark Prongo, with success in the UK in 1999 with "Movin' Thru Your System" accompanied by a similar titled 14-track album released on March 22, 1999 on Pssst Music. The releases stretched from 1999 to 2004. Locally in the Netherlands, Jark Prongo had success with the single "Sweet Little Thing". Most materials of this period including additional EPs Shake It, Rattlesnake and No Api were released on Pssst Music and Hooj Choons.
- Tomba Vira, a project from 2000 to 2002 that started with the EP Down the Park, the hits "Shriek" in 2000, "The Sound of: Oh Yeah" in 2001 followed by "Dynamite" in 2002
- Rhythm Killaz, an electronic formation created mainly for the release of the March 2001 hit single/EP "Wack Ass MF"
Their best known monikers besides the early years' The Goodmen were Riva and Chocolate Puma:
- Riva, was a name best known for the international hit "Who Do You Love Now?". Originally a Dutch local music hit "Stringer uit", it was adapted into a vocal version for Dannii Minogue at the height of her sister Kylie Minogue who was having a massive hit with "Can't Get You Out of My Head". Riva's "Who Do You Love Now?" went on to reach number 3 on the UK Singles Chart in 2001. An EP Who Do You Love Now? was also released in November 2001 through Alien/United Recordings, exclusively licensed to London Records 90 Ltd. The EP contained 9 various remixes of the song featuring Dannii Minogue.
- Chocolate Puma, thus far the moniker used more consistently by the duo particularly after the hit "I Wanna Be U", yet another big UK hit for them in 2001 that made it to UK Singles Chart' peaking at number 6.[2]: 105 2008 was a very active year with the release of "Always and Forever" that was a hit in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and many European night venues. Also in 2008 came cooperation with the Bingo Players (Maarten Hoogstraten and Paul Bäumer) in two releases being "Disco Electrique" and "Touch Me".
In popular culture
editIn 1994, Gaston Steenkist (Dobre), one half of the duo Zki & Dobre was instrumental in discovering Filipino-Dutch DJ Laidback Luke after the latter forwarded a demo tape to him. Laidback Luke was signed to a recording contract by the management of Dobre. By the end of the year, he released two albums on the label Groove Alert newly established by Dobre.[3] Laidback Luke went on to have a prosperous DJ and producing career.
In 1995, Simply Red sampled The Good Men's hit "Give It Up" for their UK #1 hit "Fairground". The Good Men were credited for the sample, and Mendes was also given credit as the performer of "Fanfarra", the original source of the Goodmen's track.
The duo's work has been featured on many DJ mixes from Hooj Choons, Global Underground, and Ministry of Sound.
Discography
editAs The Good Men
editStudio albums
edit| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1994 | Father in the Bathroom |
Singles
edit| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NLD | AUS [4] |
BEL [5] |
GER |
SWI | UK [2] |
US | US Dance | |||||||
| 1993 | "Give It Up" | 6 | 65 | 18 | 17 | 33 | 5 | 71 | 1 | Father in the Bathroom | ||||
| 1994 | "Damn Woman" | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 1995 | "Huh!" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
As Chocolate Puma
editExtended plays
edit| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Get Out of the Way / Wan Tu[6] (with Wiwek) |
|
| Make 'M Bounce / Put It Down[7] |
|
Singles
edit| Year | Single | Label | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NLD | BEL [8] |
FRA [9] |
UK | |||
| 2001 | "I Wanna Be U" | Cream Records | 65 | — | — | 6 |
| 2003 | "A Star Is Born" | Pssst Music | — | — | — | — |
| 2005 | "4 Letter Word" | — | — | — | — | |
| 2006 | "Always and Forever" | 33 | 56 | 50 | 43 | |
| 2008 | "Touch Me" (vs. Bingo Players) |
Strictly Rhythm | 73 | — | — | — |
| 2009 | "Disco Electrique" (vs. Bingo Players) |
— | — | — | — | |
| 2011 | "Go Bang!" (with Firebeatz) | Pssst Music | — | — | — | — |
| 2012 | "Gimme Sum" (with Gregor Salto) | — | — | — | — | |
| "Just One More Time Baby" (with Firebeatz) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| 2013 | "2000 People" | Mixmash Records | — | — | — | — |
| "Sausage Fest" (with Firebeatz) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| 2014 | "Step Back" (featuring Kris Kiss) | Mixmash Records | 48 | 83 | — | — |
| "Rubberband Lazer" (featuring Maikal X) | Dim Mak Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "I Can't Understand" (with Firebeatz) | Spinnin' Records | — | 116 | — | — | |
| 2015 | "Chicago Disco" (with Tommie Sunshine) | Size Records | — | — | — | — |
| "Lost Your Groove" (with Junior Sanchez featuring Arama) | Dim Mak Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "I Could Be Wrong" | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Snap That Neck" (with Laidback Luke) | Mixmash Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "The Max" (featuring Kris Kiss) | Dim Mak Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Scrub the Ground" (with Tommie Sunshine featuring DJ Funk) | Heldeep / Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Popatron" | Spinnin' Deep | — | — | — | — | |
| "Jegog" | Spinnin' Premium | — | — | — | — | |
| 2016 | "Listen To The Talk" | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — |
| "Lullaby" (with Firebeatz featuring Bishøp) | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Space Sheep" (with Oliver Heldens) | Heldeep Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Raise Your Hands Up" (with Sander van Doorn) | Musical Freedom / Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Steam Train" (with Hi-Lo) | Heldeep / Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Take The Ride" (with Tommie Sunshine) | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2017 | "The Stars Are Mine" (with Pep & Rash) | Spinnin' Deep | — | — | — | — |
| "Rising Up" (with Bart B More) | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Hippo" (with Moksi) | Heldeep / Spinnin'Records | — | — | — | — | |
| 2018 | "Gotta Get Away" (featuring Chateau) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — |
| "Tear This Mother Down" (with Tommie Sunshine featuring MX2) | Heldeep / Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Bump"[10] (with Cartac featuring Kris Kiss) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Blackout"[11] (with Firebeatz) | Musical Freedom / Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Together Forever"[12] (with Pep & Rash) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| 2019 | "The Same Way"[13] | — | — | — | — | |
| "Zhong"[14] (with Carta) | Axtone | — | — | — | — | |
| "Lazerx999"[15] (with Hi-Lo) | Heldeep Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Blam!"[16] (with Antranig) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| 2020 | "Soul Fifty"[17] (with Firebeatz) | — | — | — | — | |
| "Megablast"[18] | Tonco Tone | — | — | — | — | |
| "You Are My Life"[19] (with Mike Cervello) | Axtone | — | — | — | — | |
| "Me Up"[20] (featuring Chateau) | Spinnin' Records | — | — | — | — | |
| "Rebels on the Run"[21] (featuring Grace Tither) | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released. | ||||||
Remixes and edits
edit| Year | Track | Artist | Label | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | "Umbungo (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | The BeatThiefs | Big & Dirty | |
| 2013 | "In Da Jungle (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Orlando Voorn | ||
| "Atmosphere (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Kaskade | Ultra | ||
| 2014 | "Bassline (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | GotSome featuring The Get Along Gang | Defected Records | |
| "Revolution (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | R3hab & NERVO & Ummet Ozcan | SPRS | ||
| 2015 | "Treasured Soul (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Michael Calfan | Spinnin' Remixes | |
| "Eclipse (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Hardwell | Revealed Recordings | United We Are Remixed | |
| 2016 | "Selecta (Chocolate Puma Edit)" | Kryder | Spinnin' Records | |
| "Lullaby (Chocolate Puma Balearic House Mix)" | Firebeatz & Chocolate Puma featuring Bishøp | Spinnin' Remixes | ||
| "Trouble (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | offaiah | Virgin EMI Records | ||
| 2017 | "Where U Iz (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Fatboy Slim | Southern Fried Records | |
| "Yeah Yeah (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Bodyrox | Spinnin' Records | ||
| "Ibiza 77 (Can You Feel It) (Chocolate Puma Remix)" | Oliver Heldens | Heldeep Records | ||
| 2019 | "Step Back (VIP Mix)"[22] | Chocolate Puma featuring Kris Kris | Mixmash Records | |
| 2020 | "Badam (Chocolate Puma Remix)"[23] | Hardwell and Henry Fong featuring Mr. Vegas | Revealed Recordings | Revealed 10 Year Anniversary: Remixed EP 01 |
Under other aliases
editSingles
edit| Year | Single | Credited to | Peak chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NLD | BEL | UK | ||||
| 1993 | "Oh Boy" | Klatsch! | 25 | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Vallée de larmes" | René et Gaston | 41 | — | — | ||
| 1994 | "God Save the Queer" | Klatsch! | 42 | — | — | |
| 1995 | "Let's Get Closer Baby" | F-Action | — | — | — | |
| 1999 | "Movin' Thru Your System" | Jark Prongo | — | — | 58 | |
| 2001 | "Sweet Little Thing" | Jark Prongo | 87 | — | — | |
| "Wack Ass MF" | Rhythm Killaz | — | — | 32 | ||
| "The Sound of: Oh Yeah" | Tomba Vira | — | — | 51 | ||
| "Who Do You Love Now?" (Riva featuring Dannii Minogue) |
Riva | 26 | 10 | 3[24] | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||
References
edit- ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 231. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ Muziekencyclopedie.nl: Biography of Laidback Luke
- ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdf ed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 117.
- ^ Ultratop.be/nl/ The Good Men discography Archived June 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Get Out of the Way / Wan Tu EP by Chocolate Puma & Wiwek on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ "Make 'M Bounce / Put It Down EP by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Ultratop.be/nl/ Chocolate Pums discography Archived June 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ lescharts.com Chocolate Pums discography Archived May 29, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Bump (feat. Kris Kiss) - Single by Chocolate Puma & Carta on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ "Blackout - Single by Chocolate Puma & Firebeatz on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
- ^ "Together Forever - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ "The Same Way - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
- ^ "Zhong - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
- ^ Kaufer, Mo (2 July 2019). "Hi-Lo and Chocolate Puma share Heldeep Records heater". Dancing Astronaut. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ^ "Blam! - Single by Chocolate Puma & Antranig on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ "Soul Fifty - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
- ^ "Megablast - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
- ^ Flores Chang, Sebastian (26 April 2020). "Chocolate Puma teams up with Mike Cervello for new track 'You Are My Life'". EDM Tunes. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ "Me Up (feat. Chateau) - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Musicc". Apple Music. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
- ^ "Rebels on the Run (feat. Grace Tither) - Single by Chocolate Puma on iTunes". Apple Music. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
- ^ "Step Back (Vip Mix) [feat. Kris Kiss] - Single by Chocolate Puma on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
- ^ Carlos Gonzalez, Juan (November 8, 2020). "Chocolate Puma remix Hardwell & Henry Fong feat. Mr. Vegas, 'Badam'". EDM Tunes. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. various. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.