Photo: Olivier Donnet
In Belgium, there is no wailing and whining—en Belgique on tchoule! At least it seems as if Choolers Division took their name from the Belgian expression for »wailing«, although neither the MCs Kostia Botkine and Philippe Marien nor the angular hip hop beats by Antoine Boulangé and Jean-Camille Charles strike us as particularly distressed. The project, which was started in the environment of Marseille clubs like La Friche de la Belle de Mai or l’Embobineuse and which is being supported by the La ‘S’ Grand Atelier organisation , describes itself as an »unhinged machine« and wants you to know upfront that they won’t censor themselves on stage. After all, Choolers Division do not wail or whine. Rather, they aim for noisy confrontation in the tradition of Cannibal Ox, Dälek, or the Sleaford Mods. Whining doesn’t get you anywhere—especially not within a scene where disability is, more than often, the punchline. As people with Down Syndrome, Botkine and Marien are inevitably perceived as different—but it’s not as if they’d want to be like everyone else. Why should they?
Choolers Division on Facebook