Roger Sanchez

A multi-hyphenate DJ, producer, remixer, and A&R rep, Roger Sanchez has been one of the key figures in New York dance music since the early ‘90s. Born in 1967, the Dominican-American musician was DJing at age 13; stints at acclaimed clubs like Tunnel paved his way to the Strictly Rhythm label, one of the city’s preeminent house-music institutions. That’s where he released his debut single, the Arthur Russell-sampling “Luv Dancin’,” under his Underground Solution alias in 1990. Soon, Sanchez’s remixes for acts like Michael Jackson and Diana Ross helped cement his name as a skillful translator of underground club sounds for a mainstream pop public. That role requires a special kind of versatility, and his productions are accordingly varied, swinging between the heads-down vibes of deep house, uptempo anthems infused with trance synths and dance-pop melodies, and the sort of disco-slicked, feel-good floor-fillers that Daft Punk would model their own sound upon. In Sanchez’s world, the dance floor is a space where anything can happen; his songs are a celebration of infinite possibility set to a 4/4 beat.