Alex Attias

Switzerland's Alex Attias has been involved with dance music since the late ‘80s, beginning as a house/funk/disco DJ who held residencies in Lausanne and eventually moved on to spin at numerous venues throughout Europe. He stepped into his first production work in the mid-‘90s, first by contributing a track to a compilation called Five Star Gallery, and then by initiating the Bel-Air Project -- the outfit scored underground hits with "Magik," "Dark Jazzor," and "Jazz with Altitude." By 1997, Bel-Air ceased to exist, but Attias had already started his first label (Corn-Flex) and another pair of collaborative entities (Beatless, Funkanova). Attias moved further into the jazz-inspired sector of dance music by becoming involved with broken beat, a scene centered in West London, England. Attias' relocation to England allowed for total immersion. While Beatless remained active, Attias spawned another pair of aliases -- Mustang and Catalyst -- that produced some of the broken beat scene's finest output. The Visions Inc. label was set up by Attias in 2000, which became a home for another number of the producer's affiliations; in addition to releasing Mustang productions, there were releases from Plutonia (a collaboration with Pavel Kostiuk), Vanessa Freeman, Idema & Co. and Attias' brother Stephane Attias. Visions Inc.'s first several releases were anthologized in 2002 for the full-length Alex Attias Presents the Chromatic Universe. That same year, Attias delivered an excellent broken beat mix album for Goya Music, the first installment of The Selector Series. Attias has also worked with his brother under the River Plate guise and has released tracks as the backwards happy Xela Saitta. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi