Perfecto Presents Seb Fontaine

Live at Glastonbury, swinging naked from chandeliers, and broadcasting loud & clear on BBC Radio 1 - you are now listening to Seb Fontaine.

On July 15th, Thrive Records is proud to present the next Perfecto Presents… release from BBC Radio 1 superstar & international DJ phenomenon Seb Fontaine… Just don't call it progressive house. Please.

"I don't play progressive house," Seb insists. "I play electronic house music which can be anything from breakz to techy stuff. This album represents my entire sound, starting nice and funky but toughening up at the end. I think a good album is one that doesn't age," he adds. "You should be able to go back to it after a year and not be sick of all the tracks. That's why I'm careful not to flood my compilations with massive tunes, because although you'll love it for a couple of weeks you can get sick of even the best record if it's overplayed."

"With this compilation I hope I've captured that timeless element, rather than just doing a Now That's What I Call Dance type cash in. There are some incredible tracks on here, including Agent Sumo's "Force,'" which is always a big one in my sets. I've also included Dibaba's "Hold You" which is also amazing. As far as I know I'm one of the only people who has a copy. It's the last track on the album and always the finale of my sets."

The first thing that jumps out at you from Perfecto Presents: Seb Fontaine is the gritty, raw sound that pervades the mix. It's less superclub, more sweaty-basement party. This sound is an extension of the darker sound that Seb has always pushed, although Perfecto Presents: Seb Fontaine serves as perhaps the most accomplished realization of this direction. The world of electronic music is in a state of flux: decreased club attendance & record sales, Gestapo-like laws, and a surplus of same-sounding DJ's have taken much of the glimmer out of the global proliferation of dance culture. The sonic direction Seb chose on the new mix reflects this change in attitude, "A lot of the huge [UK] superclubs are having problems because the people don't want something so big. It's got to be something new & exciting. I think you're going to see a downsize and everything getting less polished- darker & dirtier."

Conceived on the island of Ibiza, Seb cut his DJing teeth spinning hip hop, funk and soul in his hometown of London. Seb enjoyed early DJ slots at legendary clubs like the Fridge in Brixton and Wag in Soho before the onset of the rave scene, at which point, A Guy Called Gerald's 'Voodoo Ray' caused a Damascan conversion to house. "At that stage UK hip hop was getting really moody," he explains. "But you'd go into the house room and there'd be girls dancing on the speakers and semi-naked people swinging from the chandeliers. I thought this is what I want to do, I want to be in here."

Gigs at Portobello Road's Subterania and North London's The Cross followed, before Seb and his partner Craig Richards started their own night, the legendary Malibu Stacey. These relentlessly glamorous affairs quickly turned into the hottest ticket in London, running for four years before Seb decided it was time to move on. He took up a residency at Ministry of Sound's Frisky, and when he was offered Paul Oakenfold's abdicated and highly coveted spot at reigning club Cream, it was too good an opportunity to miss. A radio gig with dance station Kiss FM followed and Seb was soon jetting off to Ibiza and moving into mix CDs, including bestsellers for Cream, as well as his own Prototype series for Global Underground. Seb's career took its next step at the beginning of 2002 when Paul Oakenfold offered Seb a home at his burgeoning label Perfecto (which is marketed & distributed by Thrive Records in North America). Seb's first release for Thrive/Perfecto was the acclaimed Horizons release in 2002, which debuted at #14 on the Billboard Electronic Albums Chart and truly established Seb as one of the premier DJ's on both sides of t Tags