We, unfortunately, have some sad news to report. As spotted by Gosokkyu on Twitter, Japanese publications are reporting that the keyboardist and founding member of the cult Japanese band Moonriders, Tohru Okada, passed away last week on February 14th due to heart failure. He was 73 years old at the time.
Okada was born in Tokyo on April 23, 1949, and rose to prominence after forming the band 'Moonriders' in 1975, along with the Mother co-composer Keiichi Suzuki. The group released its first album in 1976 under the name "Keiichi Suzuki and the Moonriders", before following it up with the 1977 self-titled record Moonriders.
During his career in music, he also recorded several solo records and performed with other groups including Life Goes On. He is perhaps best known internationally, however, for his successful career writing music for commercials. He wrote the iconic logo sound that appears at the beginning of PlayStation adverts to this day and also composed and produced the music that appeared across various Crash Bandicoot ads in Japan.
Our thoughts go out to his friends and family. You can listen to Moonriders' (1977) self-titled album below: