Published
Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 01:19
- In addition to an illustrious solo career, the Japanese artist was known as YMO's drummer and lead vocalist.
Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi has died age 70 after a battle with brain cancer.
Takahashi was known best for cofounding Yellow Magic Orchestra with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono. The group helped to pioneer popular electronic music in the late '70s and became a globally charting success, releasing albums into the 1980s (and one in the '90s) while working together on a number of solo and side projects. Takahashi's main role in the band was the drummer and lead vocalist, including on popular songs like the group's cover of The Beatles' "Day Tripper."
The Tokyo-born artist also had a long and successful musical career outside the group, starting as part of rock outfit Sadistic Mika Band. He put out several acclaimed solo albums, notably 1981's Neuromantic, which featured his fellow YMO musicians and members of Roxy Music. Takahashi also scored TV series and films and continued to work with Hosono and Sakamoto under other aliases, like Sketch Show and HASYMO.
As reported by Yahoo! Japan, the time and exact cause of Takahashi's death aren't known. He had been struggling with brain cancer since it was discovered after he suffered headaches in 2020. Later that year, he reported that he had been treated.
For more on Takahashi and YMO, revisit this Rewind review of the group's 1979 album, Solid State Survivor.
Electronic music figures have been paying tribute to Takahashi on social media.
Update, January 15th: This piece has been updated with a link to our Yellow Magic Orchestra Rewind review.
Correction, January 16th: A previous version of this article said Takahashi started out in a band called The Sadistics. It was actually Sadistic Mika Band.