Japanese musician Yukihiro Takahashi, finest referred to as the influential drummer and vocalist for digital act Yellow Magic Orchestra, has died. He was 70.
Born in Tokyo in 1952, Takahashi acquired his begin as a drummer for the Japanese rock band Sadistic Mika Band within the early Nineteen Seventies. After disbanding, among the members went on to kind the Sadistics. In 1977, Takahashi recorded his first solo album, Saravah. In 1978, Takahashi teamed up with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono to kind the Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Yellow Magic Orchestra turned famend for his or her use of synths, samplers, sequencers, and drum machines. They drew vital affect from Isao Tomita and Kraftwerk, Japanese conventional music, arcade video games, funk, and disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder. In 1978, their observe “Computer Game” reached the UK Top 20 and offered 400,000 copies within the US. Though YMO paused exercise in 1984, they’ve reunited a number of occasions over time, most lately on the World Happiness competition in August 2012.
Across the ’80s, Takahashi launched a lot of solo albums and collaborated with many musicians, together with Bill Nelson, Iva Davies of Icehouse, Keiichi Suzuki of the Moonriders (collectively known as The Beatniks). Takahashi additionally helped compose the soundtrack to the ’80s anime sequence Nadia: Secret Of The Blue Water. His most up-to-date solo work is 2018’s Saravah, Saravah!, a remastered reboot of his debut, which featured appearances from composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, pop singer Haruomi Hosono, and extra.
In 2020, Takahashi realized he had a mind tumor and underwent surgical procedure to take away it. In 2021, he revealed extra well being points.
Numerous musicians, together with Junior Boys and Sparks, paid tribute to Takahashi on social media, with Sparks writing: “Saddened to hear about the passing of Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra and beyond. It was an honor to cross paths on occasion throughout the years.”