The Tomitas

It's 4th of July, America's birthday, day of beer and fire and meat and sweaty pride and, generally, bad music. Even if I did have any interesting songs about America or renditions of the spangly banner I wouldn't post them because that would be boring. Instead I'll play contrarian and take this day to celebrate two Japanese geniuses by the name of Tomita.



In 1996 Japanese super-producer Yann Tomita teamed up with squeaky j-pop fruits the Doopees. The result is 1996's insane "Doopee Time," which you can download in its entirety from WMFU's Beware of the Blog or buy from Amazon

Yann Tomita - How does it Feel



Isao Tomita, no relation to Yann Tomita, is a synth-buff and composer who pioneered the bridge between classical and electronic music along with other synth-heads like Ruth White and Wendy Carlos. But whereas White and Carlos took a color-by-number approach to translating classical pieces into electronic ones, Tomita amassed an aresnal of analog synths and twiddled knobs to create space-age interpretations of modern classics. No real instruments on earth even come close to Tomita's beauteous synthesizers. In 1974, this totally amazing version of Debussy's "Claire de Lune" made him famous in Japan and garnered him crossover success in the US. It's a masterpiece in its own right, I bet Debussy would have agreed.

Isao Tomita - Claire de Lune (Debussy)