Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Friday, July 22, 2022

Tomita Lab feat. Kento Nagatsuka -- Let It Ride

 

It was a mere few weeks ago when I contributed the article for a track from Tomita Lab's(冨田ラボ)most recent album "7+" which was released in late June. "Kemutagararete"(煙たがられて)has the songwriter and music producer recruiting a legendary veteran, Haruomi Hosono(細野晴臣), to sing a jazz-pop ditty about finding anyone who can stand to have a conversation with him while smoking away.

Well, this time I'm going back a few more years to another album that Tomita Lab released in October 2018, "M-P-C 'Mentality, Physicality, Computer'". From that release, I'd like to introduce his "Let It Ride", this time featuring a relative newcomer by the name of Tokyo-born Kento Nagatsuka(長塚健斗who has been the vocalist for the experimental soul quartet WONK since its inception in 2013.

"Let It Ride" has a pleasantly galloping beat by Tomita Lab with lyrics by Nagatsuka, and this is just my take, but I think it not only possesses that wonderful groove that Keiichi Tomita(冨田恵一)has brought to his creations since taking on the Tomita Lab moniker but also a bit of his old KEDGE synth style from the 1980s. There are parts in "Let It Ride" that remind me of the stuff that 80s technopop band PSY-S used to perform.

Unfortunately, I have yet to know more about WONK although according to its J-Wiki profile, the group plays a number of genres: jazz, soul, hip-hop and beat music. I did find an English-language interview with Nagatsuka at the Fred Perry clothing website which digs into his own musical influences.

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