Chocolate Puma

Chocolate Puma is a Dutch DJ/Producers duo consisting of René ter Horst and Gaston Steenkist aka Dj Zki & Dobre. They are two of Holland’s most celebrated producers and with a career spanning 25 years, 400+ releases and countless remixes under their various guises make them a duo whose influence on the European dance music scene cannot be underestimated.

The guys started out producing music in the early 90s, delivering club hits under several artist names. Most famous are probably The Good Men, Jark Prongo and René et Gaston. Just check these names on Spotify or iTunes and discover a collection of awesome oldskool house music!

Drawn together by a common appreciation of the house music movement of the early 90s, their career got off to a turbo-charged start with the release of what would become one of the defining records of their career. Recording under their alias of The Good Men the duo released ‘Give It Up’ on their own Fresh Fruit label in 1992. The record surpassed all expectations, reaching #1 on the US Dance Chart and #5 in the UK Singles Chart, propelling them to unexpected global stardom. ‘Give It Up’ remains a unique record that people still sample and play, and one about which they are extremely proud of.

René and Gaston embarked on a staggeringly diverse and accomplished string of releases, dabbling with house, techno and even breakbeat as the number of aliases they recorded under grew steadily in number. Arguably the best known of these early incarnations was Jark Prongo, the increased recent support for records like ‘Moving Thru Your System’ proving just how ahead of their time they were. Indeed, some of this “strange underground stuff” despite only selling a couple of hundred copies when initially released on Pssst Music has been picked up on and championed by some key players in the German techno scene.

In 2001 the duo came up with what would be their last alias Chocolate Puma. And like The Good Men, Chocolate Puma got off to a dream start with the release of ‘I Wanna Be U’; another record that became a worldwide hit and reached #6 in the UK Singles chart, prompting an appearance from the duo on Tops of the Pops. And then after ‘Learning’ in 2002 and A Star Is Born’ in 2003 they released ‘Always And Forever’ in 2005 what again ended up in the UK singles chart, they decided to let go of all those other aliases and go on as Chocolate Puma.

After working with Defected Records for some time, Chocolate Puma and leading dance music label Spinnin' Records have enjoyed a close relationship for the past few years, with the duo establishing themselves as key artists both in the studio and behind the decks. Records like ‘Step Back’, ’Space Sheep’ (with Oliver Heldens), ’Steam Train’ (with Hi-Lo), ‘Scrub The Ground’ (with Tommie Sunshine & DJ Funk) and ‘Lullaby’ (with Firebeatz) as well as countless well-received remixes have placed Chocolate Puma in a league of their own and steadily built them a loyal legion of fans all over the world.

It’s no surprise they have regular appearances at major clubs and festivals worldwide, including Hï & Ushuaia Ibiza, Tomorrowland Belgium, Mysteryland The Netherlands, EDC & Omnia Las Vegas, Sensation Korea, Veld Festival Canada, Stereo Live USA. Head to see a Chocolate Puma live DJ set and three quarters of the tracks you hear will be produced or remixed by them, while the rest contains personal edits of some of their favourite brand new or classic tracks, all mixed and improvised on the fly into one massively energetic set.