Towa Tei

Towa Tei
TOWA TEI 2009
Background information
Born	September 7, 1964 (1964-09-07) (age 45) Tokyo, Japan
Genres	Shibuya-kei Electronica Dance House
Occupations	Music producer Disc jockey
Instruments	Keyboards
Labels	Elektra Records
Associated acts	Deee-Lite
Website	http://www.towatei.com/

Towa Tei (テイ・トウワ^?) is a Japanese DJ of Korean descent. He moved to New York City in the late 1980s to be an art student, but soon dropped out as he became involved in the New York City club scene. He first earned notice for his remix work on tracks from the Jungle Brothers' 1989 LP Done by the Forces of Nature.

In 1990, he shot to fame as a member of the downtown New York club trio Deee-Lite. The group scored an international hit with "Groove Is In the Heart."

In 1991, Towa Tei and Super DJ Dmitri collaborated with Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto on the song "Rap the World."

After two albums, 1990's World Clique and 1992's Infinity Within, Towa Tei left Deee-Lite to begin working on solo projects; his debut album, Future Listening! a montage of bossa nova, jazz, and electronic dance music, appeared in 1995. His second album was 1998's Sound Museum. On it, he collaborated with Kylie Minogue on the track "GBI: German Bold Italic," which reached number 20 in Japan and number 63 in the UK. Bebel Gilberto also did vocals for the album. This was followed by the album Last Century Modern in 1999.

In 2005, Towa Tei released a new album titled Flash and a new single with Minogue, "Sometime Samurai", which reached number six in Japan.

Discography

Studio albums

• 1995 Future Listening!
• 1998 Sound Museum
• 1999 Last Century Modern
• 2002 Sweet Robots Against the Machine
• 2005 Flash
• 2009 Big Fun

DJ-mix albums

• 2004 Motivation-Songs for Make Up
• 2004 Motivation-Driving Sweets
• 2005 Motivation3
• 2005 Motivation4 -Dusty Dance Halls
• 2007 Motivation Five

Singles and EPs

• 1995 Technova
• 1995 Luv Connection
• 1997 Happy (ハッピー^?)
• 1997 Intro
• 1998 GBI: German Bold Italic feat. Kylie Minogue
• 1998 Butterfly feat. Ayumi Tanabe
• 1999 Funkin' for Jamaica
• 1999 A Ring
• 1999 Let Me Know feat. Chara
• 2000 'Kasei (火星, Mars^?) feat. Ikuko Harada (Clammbon)
• 2001 Funkin' for Jamaica (re-release)
• 2005 Sometime Samurai feat. Kylie Minogue
• 2006 Koi no Upload (恋のアップロード, Love Upload^?)
• 2008 N705i
• 2008 A.O.R. feat. Lina Ohta
• 2009 Mind Wall feat. Miho Hatori

Remix albums

• 1994 Future Recall!
• 1995 Future Recall 2
• 1997 Stupid Fresh
• 2000 Lost Control Mix
• 2000 Lost Control Mix 2
• 2003 Re: Towa Tei Sweet Robots Against the Machine
• 2006 Flasher

Compilation albums

• 2002 Towa Tei / Best
• 2003 Best Korea (Korea only)

External links

• Official Website (Japanese)

This article on an electronic musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e