Two weeks ago I witnessed the ALFOS experience at a mini club located in the basement of Crust, a local pizzeria in Athens. The event was hosted by Deaf Ears Disco Cult, a local project by Greek DJs Christos Aggelopoulos and Thanasis Besinis, and featured the acid house veteran Sean Johnston, founder of A Love From Outer Space (ALFOS) collective, alongside the late Andrew Weatherall. Whoa, what a night to remember!
Sean Johnston was born in Bridlington and grew up in a rural area of East Riding. While in his late teens, he moved to Hull for studies. This is the city where he started his DJ career, promoting and hosting local night shows. In the spring of 1988 he travelled to London in order to follow a career in the music business. Working as booking agent, he attended various nights at London clubs and experienced the blow-up of the acid house scene.
One of the defining moments in his journey is undoubtedly the acquaintance with Andrew Weatherall through Jeff Barrett, the label manager of Heavenly Records, in the early 90's. In 1994 he released a single alongside sound engineers Jake Davies, Matt Nelmes & Rich Johnstone for Sabre of Paradise, a label established by Lord Sabre himself.
The origin of the ALFOS parties can be found in 2007, when Johnston gave Weatherall a car lift to Brighton. The latter listened to a CD mix made by the former, focused on slow-paced, nu-disco psychedelic sound. What had been initially created for personal entertainment purposes was materialized to commercially available compilation Watch The Ride (2008), which was well received by the audience. Following the compilation's success, fellow DJ Nathan Gregory Wilkins invited the duo to play music at The Drop, a new club in London, and consequently the first event was realized.
The musical manifesto of the ALFOS experience incorporates dance tracks laid out in many different guises, but never exceeding 122 bpm; a refined distillation of music genres, from progressive house & techno of the 90's to cosmic disco, krautrock and psychedelic electronic music.
Apart from his DJing duties, Sean Johnston has graced electronic dance music with his own productions & remixes, most notably under the Hardway Bros moniker. The project was initially created in co-operation with Jake Davies and Rich Johnstone and is currently run by Johnston solely.
Last but not least, one of his latest aliases can be found in the below YT video; A Mountain Of Rimowa with track No More (in original version and remix by Max Pask)
A MOUNTAIN OF RIMOWA - NO MORE (ORIGINAL MIX)