Prototype

I purchased this cd for the 2nd time, as my 5 month old puppy chewed up disc 1.I chose the like new, and it is, no problems with the cd.Great tracks, love it.

Seb Fontaine always does great techno music. Seb Fontaine's Prototype has got to be one of his best albums ever.

Seb Fontaine Prototype 01Think of the DJ Seb Fontaine, as dance music savoir for the new millennium; but for those of you unlucky ones out there, let me give you the low down on him. Seb started out dj'ing at a young age and when on to play at soul and reggae clubs; there he used to get paid 39 pounds (about $25 dollar here) a night; spinning the same old records, night after night. Until a friend of his talked him in to going to a house club one night, and the rest is history. Seb told one magazine: "I was totally blown away". That is where he found his "niche". In a matter of months, Seb went from playing the same old crappy routines and the same old records, to testing out different tunes, missed placed mix's, studying the dance floor, and picking up his "sixth sense" for what the crowd liked and wanted to hear.... before they knew they wanted to hear it! Seb started out his new dance themed set with a number of residencies from clubs such as Wag and Fridge in London, and last year went he got a weekly night at cream in Spain. His set at Cream is where he started attracting people from around the world, people from Germany, china, and even the USA. Everyone wanted to see him perform dance floor destroying sets. Seb's reputation was growing and just rep, so will his CD's. For all you house music lovers out there, disc 1 is for you. Seb slices and dices his way into the funky-seedy style of house music, that currently the crazy of there in London. From the opening track "My Fellow Boppers", you can tell just where Seb is going take you. The music builds and grows into a furnace of hard deep house with core tracks like "Basketball Heroes" "Zipper" and "He chilled out 99". Seb is making a fiery of deep house that never lets you down. Disc 2 (my favorite.) is more like a peak time Saturday night, but with a more trance theme to it. This set blends, shiver, and melts into more commercial tracks such as ATB's "9pm(till I come), "Life Isn't Easy", and "Mission". Plus some more "E"urphoric ones that can be found in gems like "Universal Nation" and " Because of Dreams". In the end, Prototype is a small sample of what we should prepare for what to come from Seb Fontaine, because once you hear this CD, you'll be some immersed, so deep into the music...you'll realize that the CD has stop, but you was still jamming.DJ Dirty D.

I've owned this album for about 5 years now and I still pop it in my cd player from time to time. Disc 2 has to be one of my favorite cd's of all time. Right up there with Oakenfold's Tranceport and NY Global Underground. Disc 2 is just amazing. It features some of the very best trance songs of that time. I don't have to give the names of them because from song #2 until the end is just awesome. If you are thinking of buying it, trust me, it is definitely on to own. Disc one is a little more of a house style but it's not too bad. I'm more of a trance person but I can still dig it.

Prototype was the first Global Underground I bought without hearing the DJ beforehand. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the track listing was promising, and it is after all, a Global Underground. I was very impressed that it goes right up there with the best of them. Seb Fontaine moves through a hard, pumping, uptempo house to real peak disc of trance. Latin percussion, big thunderclaps, down and dirty basslines, and a rough tempo push the first disc through the likes of DJ Dan's "That Zipper Track" and Jan Driver's "Drive By". Baby Doc's "Back to Love" ease things up nicely before Durango 95's "5:55" reaches a climax and first disc fades off. "Good Shot" starts off disc 2 in disc 1 fashion with a strong house beat, but then a nice melodic bassline drops in and bigger more trancier sounds come to the front of the music and our journey has taken off. Seb moves through ATB's cheesy but wonderfully bright anthem "9PM till I come" and Tilt's "I Dream" climaxes nicely. Travel's "Bulgarian" and Atlantis's "Fiji" keep us suspended before Seb, as they would say in Spinal Tap, "turns it up to 11" with Dejure's "Sanctuary". Seb's presence on the transitions is barely noticeable and he makes the house to trance progression very smoothly. Nice.

"Prototype," Seb Fontaine's first installment on the Boxed label, has something for everyone. CD #1 is a driving mix of hard, funky, mostly non-melodic high-thump-factor house. Depending on your tastes, you will either be moved to get up and start shaking your duff in your bedroom to the deep tech-house beats, or you'll find it extremely repetitive and boring. I subscribe to the first view!CD #2 is a tasteful mix of melodic Euro-style trance, guaranteed to please even mainstream tastes with tried and true anthems like Hands Burn - "Good Shot," ATB - "9PM (Till I Come)," and Atlantis - "Fiji." I say this is a tasteful mix because, even though it features several overplayed tracks like the ubiquitous "9PM (Till I Come)," it does not insult the listener's intelligence like a Best of Ibiza "mix" that romps through 25 moldy trance anthems on one CD.All in all, this mix has unlimited party potential. For your next house party, stick both discs in your CD player - it's the next best thing to having Seb spin for you live.

As this prototype series progresses so its ability to hold the listener's attention diminishes. This is really only because the choices on the album aren't up to scratch, as if a lot of previously unused material has been rounded up and used to fill a crack. The overal sound is of a mainstream yet undistinguished mix, lacking the sparks of identity it needs to make it great. Probably wise that this was to be Sebs final offering in this series; he quit while he was being caught up by everybody else.