Published
Tue, Jun 14, 2005, 00:30
- Satoshi Tomiie opens up his electronic soul to RA as he gears up for his first Ibiza gig in 2005 at the Def Mix residency.
There are few artists who can lay claim to having been picked up by not one but two major forces who have shaped the dance music industry but Japan's Satoshi Tomiie is one such artist.
First it was House God, Frankie Knuckles who invited Satoshi to join the Def Mix production team in New York back in the late eighties early nineties. Then, in the year 2000, it was another of dance music's most religious figures, John Digweed, largely regarded as the founder of the progressive house church, who used several of Satoshi's productions and collaborations on his Global Underground Los Angeles release; Satoshi Tomiie's "Love In Traffic" remixed by John Creamer and Stephane K one of the definitive tunes of that album and indeed, the year 2000 .
It was only a matter of time then before Satoshi along with Hector Romero would set up his own label in the form of Saw Recordings, whose early releases like Bi-Path's 'Paranoize', Madam's 'Penetration' and Satoshi's solo effort 'Virus' were in many ways responsible for spawning a new subgenre that would eventually evolve to become tribal progressive house. It's fair to say, however, that very few labels ever managed to balance the dark and sinister undertones and energetic house rhythms to the same great effect as was accomplished on those pioneering early releases on Saw.
Having just notched up its 40th release Saw Recordings continues to offer diverse and exciting music with releases in the past twelve months from artists like Bush II Bush, Mardel, Chab, Nathan Fake, Matthias Heilbron, Blue Haze, Tantamanna and Niki B & Christian E.F.F.E. And not forgetting Satoshi's own latest mix compilation "ES" which you can read all about in our latest Music Reviews and the forthcoming follow-up "ES-B".
This Saturday sees Satoshi Tomiie take centre stage at the Def Mix residency in Ibiza along with label cohort Hector Romero. We looked into Satoshi's electronic soul to find out how his Def Mix days have influenced Saw Recordings, what he thinks are some of the key releases to date on Saw and what makes Pacha in Ibiza one of the most talked about clubs in the world.