Satoshi Tomiie: Event Review
Author: Drew K
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
After five delicious slices of Hawaiian pizza at a nearby pizzeria and as many beers later, I trotted down the road and made my way to room at about 11:30, with the club already having the atmosphere of what was going to be a great night. I was welcomed in the main room by Ivan Gough and to my surprise, was in the middle of Lemon 8's classic remix of North Atlantic - Lights Out. Gradually moving towards the chunkier house and electro spectrum later in his set his mixing was smooth and the tunes were fresh.
Not to be outdone by the Gooch, Mark James came on and boosted the crowd's energy levels, remixes of Depeche Mode and Chris Lake - Changes were a highlight. It was also great to see that all of Mark's tracks were on vinyl, a format which I have noticed he prefers to cd. By the time he finished up behind the decks, he had the already full room crowd grooving along nicely, with all three podiums occupied and the mezzanine now opened as the crowd was smiling and at full capacity.
For those who went to see Satoshi Tomiie back in 2002, they would agree that it was one of the great parties of that year and even for some it would rate up amongst the best ever, myself included. Since then though the sound has changed, Satoshi has championed a very dark and proggy house sound legendary in dance circles for many years, but if you've heard his latest renaissance '3D' mix, you would agree that his sound has moved on from that and now consists of variable shades of electro, house and techy rhythms. With Mark ending his set with Pryda - The Gift, it was going to be a strong effort to hold the crowd at its current level.
He probably couldn't have picked a better opener than the new Chab gem titled Lover which is currently getting a flogging from Hernan Cattaneo and Desyn Masiello.
Sticking with the famous Saw (the lael he owns) sound for the next hour and a half, his basslines were full of punch, permeated with damp, dirty electronic vocals and sounds, highlighted by his remix of Slok - Lonely Child and pete hellers unreleased Simpler which Satoshi mentioned was his biggest record of the last month. At this stage, the room crowd was enjoying every minute, with one in every two tunes gaining hands in the air status from the first six or seven rows of people.
After an un-adulterated start, Satoshi started to push the boundaries a little with a tough deep tech house approach. Not completely enjoying the middle of his set I found myself wandering around the club trying to catch up with as many people as I could. The crowd was definitely one of the highlights, along with the creative and bright decor the room management team had put together. The side room was grooving along nicely all night and remained pretty full with energetic punters lapping up the sounds of house, breaks and chunky electro. For one, it was Room's 5th birthday, and the guys there genuinely have a strong love for the classic progressive sound and do their best to make every international dj that plays a special event. The visuals were great and the large plasmas illuminated the console with bright colour making the silhouette of each dj a strong Kodak moments.
After taking a small break and catching my breath again, I returned about thirty mins before he was eventually going to finish with his special edit of Love in Traffic, a version he only plays every couple of months. This would inevitably gain all what was lost in the previous thirty mins of his set, gaining a huge cheer from everyone in the club. Altogether, it was a fantastic set by the softly spoken man from Japan/NY.
To finish off, the pairing of Andrew Padula and Sean Quinn was always going to raise some eyebrows from the crowd. The two amalga Tags