Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi has died, aged 70

15 January, 2023

Yukihiro Takahashi

Yellow Magic Orchestra Drummer Yukihiro Takahashi has died, aged 70.

The influential musician’s death was first reported in The Japan Times following a statement released last week.

While a cause of death wasn’t shared in the statement, reports from Japanese media outlet Sponichi suggested he caught pneumonia in early January, which worsened.

The musician underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour in 2020. He later tweeted that he was expecting to undergo more treatment following his surgery after revealing that he had additional health problems.

Born on June 6 1952, Takahashi took to music from a young age, following the influence of his older brother. He learned how to play the drums by playing with college musicians while still in high school.

By the time he was just 16, Takahashi was already a studio drummer and had started to pick up work both as a drummer in various bands and playing drum parts for television commercials.

His work first rose to prominence in Japan when drumming in Sadistic Mika Band and then later via the release of his 1977 debut album, ‘Saravah!’

In 1978, he became one of the founders of Yellow Magic Orchestra and their self-titled debit album cemented Takahashi as one of the best drummers of his era, as well as one of the founders of synthpop.

Their debut album sold over 250,000 copies in Japan and entered both the Billboard 200 and Billboard R&B charts. In the UK, ‘Computer Game/Firecracker’ entered the Top 20.

The band went on to release seven albums in total and alongside this, Takahashi released an abundance of his own material too, making twenty solo albums in total.

Recently, Takahashi’s solo work was reissued on vinyl. His debut ‘Saravah!’ was reissued in 2019 via We Want Sounds, and ‘Neuromantic’ was reissued for the first time in over 40 years in 2021.

He was also a member of the electropop group Metafive, a collective he formed with Keigo Oyamada, Yoshinori Sunahara, Towa Tei, Tomohiko Gondo, and Leo Imai after they worked together as Takahashi’s backing band on his 2014 tour.

Tributes from across the music world have come in for Takahashi. The band Sparks wrote: “Saddened to hear about the passing of Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra and beyond. It was an honour to cross paths on occasion throughout the years.”

Erol Alkan tweeted: “RIP…Yukihiro’s version of Drip Dry Eyes was a personal obsession of mine over lockdown.”

You can read some more of the many tributes below:

This is a developing story – more to follow 

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