Introduction to this blog and who TAtoms is.

First the name. I wanted The Underdogs, but it was taken. Cats are lower on the food chain than dogs, so I stuck with this.

I just wanted a site to display some local talent and my own productions, plus any other talented people out there who make electronic music of any flavor, as well as any DJ mixes including that music!

Yeah there are tons of blogs doing the same for major artists and their local artist, but living in Nagoya, Japan, the music and DJs I have access to are way different than the ones of most blogs out there.

Nagoya, Japan you may be asking. Guess I need to introduce myself.

My name is Tommy Adams, and I am a Graphic Designer and English Teacher here in Japan. Most people only know about Tokyo when it comes to Japan, some people may know Kyoto and Osaka, and of course Hiroshima and Nagasaki are infamous. Well I was placed in Nagoya city, the 3rd (or 4th...) largest city in Japan. It is known for the best economy in Japan, being next to Toyota city which helps that economy, the food, the HEAT, the COLD, and many other things you need to come here to see.

As for myself, I was born and raised in Chino, California. This was one of many places I lived before I landed in Nagoya, and all of the places helped me become what I am today. After Chino, I moved to Chino Hills, then Alta Loma, then Ontario, and finally Irvine for 9 months before moving to Nagoya 2 years ago.

I can't remember when I got into electronic music but it was back when I was in Elementary school. I was listening to Orbital a lot, and a lot of other small at the time European acts. I never got into Detroit or Chicago house. My love became obsession one day in 96 when I was listening to groove radio one night with my friend. They were having a battle of new songs one night and my friend and I couldn't decide which one we liked more. The 2 songs were Daft Punk's Around the World, and Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up. I supported Daft Punk, he supported Prodigy. After we recorded both on tape (yes tape, not CD) we put listened to them over and over until the earlyu morning, and by the end of the night our opinions didn't change. This began my obession with Daft Punk and French House.

Thanks to the internet I was able to find out about more artists based around France. I was listening to Cassius, Dimitri from Paris, Alan Braxe, We in Music, Les Rythmes Digitales, DJ Falcon, and many others. I played the HELL out of the Paris is Sleeping, Respect is Burning volume 1 CD! I wasn't only listening to French House, I was listening to DrumNBass (Roni Size, Goldie, Reprazent, Krust, Die, etc.), electronic (Aphex Twin, u-ziq, etc.), trip hop (Tricky, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, etc.) and I also listened to a lot of rap AND Hip-Hop (they ARE different, you know?). Ask anyone you know and I was always listening to music, somehow, someway. All of that shaped me into what I am today.

And what am I today? An English Teacher and Graphic Designer. Yeah anti-climatic huh? Well I recently returned to making music after not having done it since HS on my first PC. After that PC crashed and I lost all of my music I made, I was traumatized, and never wanted to do it again. Many PCs and crashes later, I made the investment and return to music production. I bought an M-Audio Axiom 49 to help with my composiing, and downloaded some demos of programs and tried them out. The songs I have produced so far are all on Reason (theyc an be found on my MySpace here). I have since moved to and LOVE Ableton Live! I am trying to learn the program in and out before I produce more music, so the music on my page is all old, and I can't wait to get up some new stuff on there.

As for DJing, at the end of last year, before seeing Daft Punk live for the second time in Japan, I met Ryan at his welcome party. I invited a ton of people to go see Daft Punk with me, and like (yeah I AM from California, and I still type "like") 6 people said they would go. Only Ryan went. Since then we have gone out to see Digitalism, Gildas and Masaya, Tiesto, and Dex Pistols live (Justice and Modular Records party in under a week!!!). Plus MANY a night going out to see local DJs tear up Nagoya. Ryan always wanted to be a DJ and wanted to buy some turntables. He needed help with buying it since he didn't speak Japanese, so I went along to help him out. After a long process of clearing his card, he got it. One night after going out drinking, he invited me over to go play around with it. After being on it for a few minutes, I was in love. Since then I have gone over to practice a lot!

This last Monday, I recorded 2 of my mixes, and got them online last night. I will post a link to them but just be warned...

I was drinking. A lot. So transitions are usually bad, knobs not turned to right places, so some parts have no lows or highs or mids, etc.

I was text messaging my girlfriend for most of the mixes. Yeah one hand DJing, and mentally focused on something else.

I was freestyling. I threw a ton of songs of the House and Electro flavor together on a CDR, a lot of new songs I never heard before. Not knowing what songs were and what was next, I am not at the level to mix it together and have it sound good.

Regardless, I have them online, for people to see what I sound like from day 1 of recording a mix. I will be continuing to grow as I practice more, and the goal is to have the DJ crew (Ryan, Shane and I) do some events here in Nagoya before we move to Tokyo next year.

Anyways, to the mixes.

My second mix

My third mix

Lemme know what you think. I need the good and bad, so I can go back and do things better/again my next time I record.

Watch me and the crew (I will announce the name once we decide on one) grow, and look forward to posts from the others plus other music lovers who want to share their music, or favorite playlist now on here!