The origins of Front de Cadeaux can be traced back to a dating site for bears, some ten years ago. After Maurizio had spotted a Felix Kubin poster on one of Ugo’s pictures, the two started chatting. Very much intrigued, Ugo invited Maurizio, who lives in Brussels, to play at a festival he organised in Rome. Shortly thereafter Maurizio became a resident of Ugo’s Subwoofer night, one of the first bear parties in Europe that existed outside of the mainstream bear realm.
The two bonded over food of course, over their belief that dance culture is rotting from the inside, and even more over slow, heavy electronic music. You have to picture it: a flat in Brussels, a table with empty bowls and bottles, thick smoke and these two daddy dj’s listening to stacks and stacks of UK rave and breakbeat records on 33 instead of 45 rpm. Testing how deep and sexy these garbage records sound at a pace the bears can actually follow without dropping dead – Ugo & Maurizio baptised it ‘supreme rallentato’.
