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UNDERGROUND PIONEERS​

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Underground Pioneers

It’s not always the loudest voices that leave the biggest mark. The Underground Pioneers section is dedicated to the labels, platforms, and personalities who, with passion and vision, have redefined, revived, or transformed dance genres – long before they became established names.

© Z Records, Dave Lee (with kind permission)

What remains when a genre is written off by the mainstream? For Dave Lee, a love of records became a label that not only archives disco but reinterprets it. Z Records stands for cultural persistence and sonic vision—bridging the past and the future of the dancefloor.

"Satoshi Tomiie at Tantra" Raj Taneja from Vancouver, CA, CC BY 2.0

Satoshi Tomiie is one of the first artists that brought house music from New York to Japan. In the late ’80s, he began combining jazz with electronic sounds, shaping the early global reach of the genre.