Pete Dafeet

As he prepares the release of his Falling Off EP on his own Lost My Dog label, the deep house don picks his all-time favourites, from Armand Van Helden to Prince.

What’s the first record you ever bought?

Armand Van Helden’s ‘U Don’t Know Me’. Pretty happy with that one, to be honest, especially as I bought it in HMV… could have been a lot worse!

Your favourite ever record?

That’s a tough one. ‘U Don’t Know Me’ would be up there. Maybe an original UK press of Lil’ Louis’s ‘French Kiss’ I got for 99p in an Oxfam shop the other year, or Mr Fingers’ ‘Can You Feel It’ for the gritty simplicity… oh, and I’m obsessed with Brett Johnson’s ‘Sigh Of Relief’ – the blend of rhythm and melody on that record encapsulates everything I love about house music.

Then if you’re talking pop music I’ve got a real thing for Paul Simon’s Graceland – the production on it by Roy Halee is just unreal. There are some great stories about how they got some of the echo effects in there. I watched Paul Simon and the original musicians play the album live in Hyde Park last summer and that was incredible. Oh, and I couldn’t do this and not mention Roberta Flack and Killing Me Softly, or Nina Simone and Baltimore.

The guaranteed floor-filler?

For the last 18 months it’s been the drum version of Sebo K’s ‘Spirits’. Guaranteed to lock the dancefloor into a groove. More recently my own track ‘Hopkins’ has been doing similar, which has been nice.

The guilty pleasure?

Well everyone knows the young crowds are loving the UK garage at the minute, and you can get away with some pretty cheesy stuff because they weren’t around the first time to know it was cheesy. I reckon I could happily dig a 12-inch of DJ Luck and MC Neat’s ‘Little Bit Of Luck’ out and get everyone enjoying that like it’s new. I haven’t done it yet, mind…