Unlike many bands who started out playing more or less straight-ahead rock but in the late '90s began to assimilate electronic elements, the Aloof was formed as a strictly dance squad and only later added a vocalist and employed tighter song structures. The band began in 1990 when DJ Dean Thatcher and producer Jagz Kooner (also a member of Andrew Weatherall's Sabres of Paradise) issued the single "Never Get out of the Boat" on a limited white-label pressing, but was only officially launched when ffrr Records gave the single a proper release. By the following year, the duo added vocalist Ricky Barrow and programmer Gary Burns (also with the Sabres) and recorded several singles for Cowboy Records. While playing live PAs at nightclubs around Great Britain, the Aloof grew disgusted with the burnt-out house scene and decided to become a true live band. Adding drummer Richard Thair (later with Red Snapper) in 1993, the expanded quintet set up their own label, Flaw Records, and released Cover the Crime in 1994. The album became popular on British indie charts, and earned the Aloof a contract with East West, which reissued the LP in 1995 and also released their second album Sinking one year later. The group played several festivals during the summer of 1996, opened for Leftfield and watched their single "One Night Stand" reach the British Top 30 late that year. The album Seeking Pleasure followed in 1998, though the group was dropped from East West after weak sales and a shake-up in the label's dance division. Kooner left soon after, and the Aloof moved to Screaming Target Records for 1999's This Constant Chase for Thrills.