HOW TOMO HIRATA BANGS THE JAPANESE EDM DRUM
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TAIKO OUT NOW ON DJ CENTER RECORDS (FRANCE)
JAPAN is emerging as a new base for EDM – and TOMO HIRATA stands at the forefront of it all. A tireless promoter and believer in the global sound of EDM, he is proud to announce his new single TAIKO – released on the French top label DJ CENTER RECORDS. The track features a relenteless beat, based on the traditional Japanese taiko instrument. International response has been great so far with great comments from leading Djs all accross the world. Sidney Samson: “I’m gonna put your song in my next radio show for sure!”Quentin Mosimann: “Full Support” Plastik Funk: “yeah! nice tune and perfect for the festivals!!” Jetfire: “cool track!” Justin Prime: “Dope”
TOMO HIRATA originally debuted in the early days of dance music. HOOJ CHOONS, the infuential UK based label released his first vinyl record in 1990 and ever since he’s been Djing and producing. Around 1994, techno really exploded in Japan and the whole dance scene started to grow. Tomo and his friend Yo-C’s had a lot of success with the ‘X-tra’ events which became very popular in the mid to late 90’s. They featured UK Hard House & Trance and gathered 1000 people monthly. Tomo Hirata’s ‘Feels like Heaven’ was used in a Japanese horror movie and climbed up the Japanese mainstream pop chart. After that he compiled & mixed 10 Trance compilations for major record companies and supported Tiesto in Osaka in 2001.
Later his interests moved to deeper Trance/Psy-Trance and he released a track on Raja Ram’s TIP records. Yet, shortly after he almost stopped producing & DJing for 2-3 years. Then in 2009, one of the most talented and well known Japanese producers/DJs,Shinichi Osawa(Benny Benassi’s friend) invited Tomo to his studio and they started making Electro together. Tomo was back in the game.
TOMO HIRATA: “I noticed David Guetta broke into US chart and my idol Tiesto made a track with Diplo. It was very surprising to me as I believed America was the country with almost no interest in electronic dance music . It seemed the scene in the USA got bigger and bigger however. It reminded me of the first House explosion in Europe between the late 80’s to early 90’s.
But in Japan,strangely noone including record companies/clubs and DJs were aware of this new EDM movement.- I really wanted to build the Japanese EDM scene. I spoke to EMI music Japan and ageHa,Tokyo’s biggest venue to start a Japanese EDM scene. This resulted in 3 compilations for EMI and the first EDM specialized mega event in Japan. I also started my own label/party for Japanese producers/DJs and the first EDM specialized EDM radio show on Japan’s most popular dance station BlockFM.
Now EDM has a strong base in Japan. Ultra will land in September and Avicii will play in October. A big explosion of EDM will be seen in later this year for sure. I’m quite happy to see this phenomenon even though record companies & clubs ignored my struggling at the first stage ; )”
TOMO HIRATA TOUR DATES
8/15(Fri) REVAMP PRESENTS DASH BERLIN IN TOKYO 2014 at Womb
8/22(Fri) SHIBUYA MIXX with Justin Prime at T2 Shibuya
8/24(Sun) HAMELN at module
8/30(Sat) OTODAMA BEACH PARTY at Makuhari
Listen to TOMO HIRATA’S radio show ‘EDM ESSENTIALS’ on air every 1st-3rd Monday 2400-2500 JST on BlockFM.
TOMO HIRATA – TAIKO IS OUT NOW ON BEATPORT
GRAB IT TODAY!
For more information about this release, please contact Takumi Goto of Xtra Inc: info@xtra.jp
To book Tomo Hirata, please contact Xtra Inc: info@xtra.jp
CONNECT:
https://twitter.com/tomoakihirata
http://www.mixcloud.com/tomohirata/
https://www.facebook.com/tomohirata
https://soundcloud.com/tomohirata
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