Italian artist and Fontana Mood label boss Stefano Fontana, also known as Stylophonic, has gained a reputation from his energetic, dancefloor focused tracks that have led him to many releases on prestigious labels including Supernova’s Lapsus imprint, D-FLOOR Music, Peppermint Jam and Paul’s Boutique.

Following on from his new release ‘4 Those Who Likes The Underground Feet #1’ featuring a remix from D-FLOOR label bosses NiCe7 on Beatraxx, he now enlightens us with his top five influences of all time.

Kurtis Blow – The Breaks [Mercury]

Everything started from here to me, I mean, I was 10 years old and my father bought this and it took me away, a music loop with a voice above for 3 minutes creates a magic groove. Fantastic, it was a revolution! The music from the New York street was living in my bedroom and my life changed!

Rhythm is Rhythm – Strings of Life [Transmat]

Derrick May introduced me to the Detroit Sound, those strings and the 909 beat was, is and will be one of the most dance inspired tracks ever. I love the Detroit Sound.

Deelite – What is Love [Elektra]

I love this song with the Roland bass, organ and the Lady Miss Kier voice on top. The album ‘World Clique’ was something incredible, featuring some of my idols like Qtip, Bootsie Collins. It was a perfect mix between the New York and the P-funk Sound.

Deelite alongside Lil Louis, Maw, Armand Van Helden were the pioneers!

St Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Master at work dub) [Warner Bros. Records]

This remix for me means a lot, it represents the entire Master at work sound which I fell in love with very deeply from day one.

The use of beats from Kenny Dope, the choice of the sounds, the harmony from Louie Vega and production was unbelievable. They were Alien to me. I used to take a plane from Milano to NY just to see them play at Sound Factory bar on a Wednesday and come back to Milano the day after. They’re my heroes forever!

Daft Punk – Indo Silver club [Soma]

This track represents the album ‘Homework’ which was like an asteroid that came down from an unknown planet. I love Daft Punk, they’re clever people and are very daring with their releases.

Stefano Fontana ‘4 Those Who Likes The Underground Feet #1’ on Beatraxx is out now.

Purchase/ Stream here:

Traxsource | Spotify