An esoteric cut from the iconic Jet Grind Radio game on Sega Dreamcast. This game holds a special place in my childhood, notably this song as my first time hearing a funky house / techno crossover track. Electric Toothbrush didn’t appear often in the game itself, mostly hanging back as an addition soundtrack for cut scenes. “Toronto” is a one-off alias from a storied video game composer:
Tomonori Sawada joined the Sega sound design team in 1992 as the lead composer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and stayed on board with Sega through Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and subsequent titles the company launched on other platforms in the last two decades. Sega rarely released full-on dance tracks of this caliber and for Sawada, his career has revolved primarily around the sound design side of video game audio production. Electric Toothbrush appears to be his only feature-length techno single, yet it captures the spirit of elation many of us have experienced on the dancefloor and fits perfectly with the funky ethos of the Jet Grind Radio universe; I loved this track 20 years ago as much as I do blasting it today.
Jackson Ryland 