[Song Review #93] "Nemuri no Mori" by Tomita Lab. Feat. Hanaregumi
Hi. Today's song is "Nemuri no mori" (Slumber forest) by "Tomita lab. feat. Hanaregumi".
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Index
1. Song data
| Title | Nemuri no mori (Slumber forest) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Tomita lab. feat. Hanaregumi |
| Album Title | Shipbuilding |
| Catalog Number | TYCN-80010 (Blu-spec) |
| Track No. | 3 |
| Duration | 5:56 |
| Released | 2004 |
| Publisher | Universal music |
| Lyricist | Takashi Matsumoto |
| Composer, Arranger | Kei-ichi Tomita |
| Singer | Hanaregumi (Takashi Nagazumi) |
- About the creators
Takashi Matsumoto
Takashi Matsumoto is a leading and the most revered lyricist in J-pop active since '70s.
He used to be a drummer of the legendary rock group "Happy end" before becoming a professional lyricist.
Enormous amount of lyrics are written by him and quite a few of them have been super hit songs.
Obviously one of the artist represents modern J-pop.
We have mentioned his name often, but haven't shown his pictures.
For your information, here is a short clip he is appearing.
* Takashi Matsumoto
A gentleman in black shirt and purple Jacket is Mr. Matsumoto.
A woman in a light blue blouse is a pop singer "Kumiko", and a guy in white suit is Ken Yokoyama, who is the leader of "Crazy Ken Band".
(Ref: Wikipedia, Takashi Matsumoto)
Kei-ichi Tomita
Kei-ichi Tomita is a composer, arranger, and musician active since 1988.
He is the main person today and we will come back to him in the later section.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Kei-ichi Tomita)
Hanaregumi
Hanaregumi(distant group) is a solo unit name of Takashi Nagazumi.
He used to be the vocalist of a funk band "Super butter dog" active since 1996.
The band played wide range of music from rock&roll to funk, rap. In a sense, it is a typical Japan's 2000s sound.
Here is a music clip of their rock-a-ballad, "Ashita-e Yuke"(Go to tomorrow).
* "Ashita-he Yuke"
"Funk Oolong-cha" is also an interesting funky tune, though the clip is a bit funny. Please try if you are curious.
Cover art
- Sound impressions
Calm & gentle
The electric piano with a phaser start the introduction, then a strumming play of the acoustic guitar joins.
The drums, bass, strings and the soft sound of brass then creates a gentle and breezy ensemble.
And this smooth sound lasts until the end of the track.
Tomita Lab. seems understand well about the system and factors for designing stylish and mellow AOR music, which the largest part of fans would prefer.
So, the chords, notes, tones are arranged ideally for light and mellow.
That maybe the reason why the listeners can always enjoy their comfortable music, without the worry for an unexpected too unique sound.
- Reference
- About the artist
Captain Tomita
Kei-ichi Tomita debuted in 1988 with single "Complete samples". Since then, 9 singles, and 5 original, plus 1 best album have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Kei-ichi Tomita)
As a producer
He started his professional career in 1988 by releasing his first album "COMPLETE SAMPLES" under his unit named "Kedge".
It seemed he found the producing work more interesting than perform music by himself.
Although he is a multi-player of the instruments, he concentrated on producing other artists by offering melodies.
"Mimori Yusa", "Misia", "Mika Nakajima", or "Crystal Kay" etc are known names that he participated on making albums.
As a producer
But among them, the promotion for a '90s famous pop-group "KIRINJI" might have been his most well known work as a producer.
Here is a clip of "Kirinji"s early hit and the best known song released in year 2000. Tomita is an arranger of the song.
* Aliens
Tomita Lab.
From 2003, in parallel with producer works, he started a new style music creation project named "Tomita lab." by his own.
In this project, all music and sounds are created in advance by Kei-ichi Tomita himself, then he is going to ask other artists, whom he has been inspired, to write a lyrics or sing.
Captain Tomita
Because of this unique method, 7 brilliant artists, including Takashi Matsumoto, Yumi Matsutoya, were participated for Lab's first album "Shipbuilding".
He produced 3 straight albums called "ship series" by this approach, which other 2 were "shiplaunching" and "shiphead".
Additionally, his role of job assignment looks like a a captain of the ship.
Tomita lab. method
Tomita lab.'s "Ship series" had been completed by 2010.
But he has not stopped this interesting method, even brushing it up and released 2 fine new albums until now.
We are going to post some from other albums someday, so please let us continue this subject for the next opportunity. Thank you.
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.3.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
AD : Free listening samples
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
3
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 眠りの森 (Nemuri no mori) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 冨田ラボ Feat. ハナレグミ (Tomita lab. feat. Hanaregumi) |
| Album Title | shipbuilding |
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