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"I can't
say no," laughs Satoshi Tomiie. "It's really hard for
me to turn down DJing dates. If someone wants me to play for them,
what can I say? At times it's felt like I'm a rock band on a world
tour," chuckles one of the busiest DJs on the circuit.
Luckily, while
traveling the globe Satoshi is still able to work on electronic
music tracks on his laptop - creating new music by swimming pools,
on beaches, in hotel rooms, on the move. There's lots of distractions,
though...
The last few
years have been all about DJing for Satoshi. This Japanese New Yorker
has been virtually everywhere you can think of in recent years,
playing literally hundreds of gigs - probably the reason he's repeatedly
voted into the higher reaches of DJ magazine's Top 100 DJs chart.
In March 05 Tomiie was also voted Americas #15 favorite DJ in the
world by the premier Electronic magazine BPM. He only spins in his
home city every two or three months; the rest of the time he's traveling,
although the Big Apple acts as a handy midpoint between Asia and
Europe - where a lot of his gigs are.
Satoshi does
reluctantly concede that he's going to have to cut down on his touring
schedule somewhat in 2005. This is to enable him to be grounded
enough to release music in a calm, unstressed manner.
Releasing in
the spring and summer is 2 mix CD's ES (Electronic Soul) and ES-B,
the first being a typical Satoshi club set of spacey tech grooves,
progressive funk and dark chugging clubby rhythms. The second CD
is going to be more chilled, the kind of set he'd play at Cafe Mambo
at a sunset Ibiza pre-party. "I like this sort of music too,
but don't often get the chance to play it," Satoshi states.
So, to accompany the club mix, he's lining up a warm-up selection
of deep house Inland Knights-type tunes that radiate warmth and
summery vibes.
Then, later
in the year, he'll release an in-house compilation of tracks from
his label - Saw Recordings. The label has been a lot of what he's
been about since the 21st Century began. In the last few years Saw
Recordings has carved out a niche - and earned a formidable reputation
- for credible club grooves. Taking its name from a sound wave,
Saw will be unleashing its first artist album early this year: Satoshi's
really excited about the release of Chab's sublime variety of rock,
electro and house tracks.
All this has meant that Satoshi has had to put back the release
of his hotly anticipated artist album until at least 2006. He's
already recorded a track with crazy Geordie friends Lexicon Avenue
from Newcastle in England, but isn't in any rush. "I know it's
going to be a house-orientated album again," he says. "I
might bring other influences in, but it'll be from a house blueprint."
Satoshi's debut album, of course, was 2000's massive 'Full Lick'.
A mix of classic vocal house styles and darker progressive moods,
'Full Lick' featured the outstanding Satoshi anthem 'Love In Traffic'
with Kelli Ali (ex-Sneaker Pimps) on vocals. The track was picked
up by John Digweed for his Global Underground mix, and remains a
progressive classic to this day.
'Darkness' on the album featured veteran house vocalist Robert Owens,
while Satoshi also recorded a couple of tracks with Diane Charlamagne
- the vocalist on Goldie's 'Timeless' drum & bass opus. As an
album showcasing his past influences and future direction, the 'Full
Lick' was inspired.
It also helped
Satoshi come out of the shadows in the Def Mix organization and
take centre stage. He had got involved with Def Mix after recording
the seminal house track 'Tears' with Frankie Knuckles back in '89,
and then moving to New York to hang with David Morales. Morales
taught him some DJ techniques, and they did the track 'I'll Be Your
Friend' together. Satoshi lived in Morales's apartment for about
a year, going to a lot of parties, and then struck out on his own.
Apart from
the jacking stuff, house music in America in the '90s remained very
vocal - especially the material that Knuckles and Morales were renowned
for. But Satoshi became influenced by the darker, trancier European
stuff pioneered by Sasha & Digweed at Twilo in NYC towards the
end of the Nineties. This darker, more European sound - that Tenaglia
also picked up on - would set the tone for Satoshi's Saw Recordings
imprint, started brilliantly with dark progressive roller 'Paranoize'
by Bi-Path. Now up to 40 releases, the label has already released
the excellent compilation 'Undulation 1' - a disc each was mixed
by Satoshi and label partner Hector Romero.
When Satoshi
was invited by compilation kings Global Underground to contribute
a mix to their NuBreed series, it was a great honor. Satoshi's album
remains the fastest and highest selling NuBreed album to date.
Satoshi doesn't
spout the bluster that certain other DJs are prone to - hyping themselves
into the media when original talent can be lacking at source. Quiet
and unassuming, he just gets on with the job of playing and producing
quality underground dance music.
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