With their natty suits and sleek musical grooves that fuse jazzy samples with dance beats, U.F.O. has epitomized a certain perception of Tokyo as fashionable and cosmopolitan, ever since "I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Jazz)" catapulted across the world's dance floors in 1991.
The stylish veneer, however, is backed by an encyclopedic knowledge of music. Visiting the small apartment that serves as Brownsville Studios, the epicenter for United Future Organization, is like entering a musical incubator. Records of every description are everywhere: jazz standards stacked on the floor; European pop slid beneath chairs; Latin records teetering precariously on the edge of a desk.
The trio of Tadashi Yabe, Toshio Matsuura and Raphael Sebbag have been fixtures of Tokyo's club culture since its inception in the early '80s. Both Sebbag and Yabe worked at Pithecan Tropus, the first Tokyo establishment that fit the modern definition of a club. They were joined by Matsuura, anxious to make the switch from wait-staff to DJ. At the time it wasn't such a radical change; DJs hadn't yet attained their current status as cultural icons and were treated as just another part of the help.