Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2010

Courtesy of Air

A perfect example of the worldwide spread of house music can be found in the duo of Satoshi Tomiie and Hector Romero. The pair, who celebrate the tenth anniversary of their label SAW Recordings at Air on June 12, came together from disparate corners of the globe in the ’90s to join house legends Frankie Knuckles and David Morales as junior members of New York’s Def Mix agency.

The archetypal Asian classical music prodigy, Tomiie was delivered to Def Mix through a fateful meeting with Knuckles in Tokyo. Romero, meanwhile, was a teenager spinning house, hip-hop and Latin for street parties in the Bronx when he was recruited by Def Mix impresario Judy Weinstein. Together, they tied up with Knuckles and Morales to form a collective that essentially defined the sound of New York house in the ’90s.

At the turn of the decade, Tomiie and Romero launched SAW as an outlet for productions that didn’t quite fit the New York template.

“It seems like just a few years, but looking back at all the catalogs and the artists we have been working with, there is something Hector and I can be proud of,” Tomiie tells Metropolis by email. “We started the label with this policy: introducing quality electronic music regardless of style. It’s still the same, and we looking forward to more to come.”

If New York house often features strings and soulful vocals, SAW’s sound is more techy, taking in the arc from progressive to minimal house that defined the last decade. Tomiie is the honcho, while Romero’s role, he writes, is to provide “young, forward-thinking advice. I lend my ear as an A&R man to Morales, Frankie and Satoshi, which I love to do—I’m there to support them and Judy Weinstein in many ways.”

While Def Mix’s two-plus decades in business qualifies it as an éminence grise of house music, the group is not standing still, reshaping itself for the new web 2.0 ecosystem. “For a company that’s been around for over 25 years, you can imagine how difficult it might be, but it has to be done,” says Romero. “You must embrace these sites and reach out to the fans and interact. Satoshi has really gone full-steam ahead with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on his own, and now Def Mix as a company is coming around to taking part as well.”

“At the moment, I honestly feel house music is in a good place,” Romero says. “There is a lot of quality music out there and of course a lot of garbage, but the fun part is to find the gems and feature them in your sets—I think house music has a great future ahead.”

At Air, the contrast between Tomiie’s no-nonsense seriousness and Romero’s irrepressible sense of fun should make for an entertaining evening. Says Romero: “The fact that Satoshi and I are playing together makes it all the better—as everyone knows, I come to party and lift spirits up. I love to have fun, and fun we will have!”

“I love the energy of the crowd,” Tomiie says. “People are musically educated and well aware of what’s going on in the world of electronic music. I simply love playing in my own country.”

June 12@Air
Saw: Saw Recordings 10th Anniversary. Techno, house: DJs Satoshi Tomiie, Hector Romero, etc. June 12, from 10pm, ¥3,500. Daikanyama. Tel: 03-5784-3386. www.air-tokyo.com