Hailing out of Italy, Gabriel Aquillini, aka Gab.Gato has been a prevalent force in the Electro Funk and Techno Bass scene for many years now, appearing on countless E.P.s and compilations on labels like Electrolab and Dominance Electricity to name a few; not to mention his own "The Villains Inc.", which was founded in 2007.
While the artist's imprint has been on hiatus for a few years, he has continued working quietly on the side as a well respected illustrator of comics (who's works appeared on the labels for his imprint's 12" discs ), as well as producing tracks for different American MCs like JTAG, Shadeem, and B-Lay, with more works expected soon.
Gab.Gato's first release was in 2001 going under the name "Gato", on an Ibiza compilation of Downtempo Chillout music called "Phuture Sound Of Ibiza", featuring his track "Homicide". Aquillini then returned in 2003 as Gab.Gato, this time featured on the iconic "Theme Of Electro Empire" 12" E.P. alongside Split DJ, Paul Blackford, DJ Wildthing, Polytron, Laite, and The Metric Brothers.
In 2004, and with lots of momentum under his wings, Gab.Gato made a return on the 2nd volume of Dominance Electricity's legendary "Global Surveyor" series with the classic track "Dominant Race", as well as Electrolab's "Binary Operations" compilation featuring Diplomat and Dr. Skunkenstein, Laite, Datec, and AMR; this time with the track "ELBB". In 2005, Aquillini became involved with the founding of the Ghettotech label "4 Player Records", during the height of the genre's popularity, releasing on the 2nd and 3rd installments with the tracks "Bella", and "Love".
Throughout much of the rest of the 00's, Gab.Gato continued working on Electro Bass music, but gravitated towards producing American Hip Hop DJs, singers, and MCs because of what he felt was a more collaborative effort than what he had found in the Electro scene; giving him perhaps a more well rounded perspective of what its like to work with other artists and with different styles of music that at the heart of it all were still related culturally to Electro Funk and Techno Bass.
Proving that his heart was still in Techno Bass music however, Gab.Gato returned in 2007 with his new imprint "The Villains Inc.", which featured the artist's illustrative works on the covers, as well as his own original productions and collaborations with X-Beat, Matteo Merlo, and Djako on the label's only two releases so far "The Systematik Network Attack", and "No Light Or Shadow E.P.". Gab.Gato also appeared that year on Drivecom's Micro Driver II compilation, alongside N-ter, Dr. Siak, Unborn, and Zenobite. In 2008, the track "Csp Industry" would be released on the SOM compilation on Solar One Music, followed in 2009 by the iconic collaboration with Keith Tucker as Global Surveyor, and remixed by Dynamix Bass System on the 3rd installment of the label's Global Surveyor series.
Since then, Aquillini has been quietly working on releasing a full album compilation of his different Hip Hop collaborations of the past years called "Double Feature", but is also finishing up with an Electro remixes record called "Reprogrammed E.P." for the return of his label "The Villains Inc.", which will feature heavyweights DJ Stingray, Boris Divider, Bass Junkie, Max Durante, and Sinistarr. Stay tuned, as much more is to be expected from one of the true purveyors of Electro and the Techno Bass style.
Written by: Santino Fernandez
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