This is just going to be a short retrospective of one member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra that suddenly passed away yesterday at the age of 70.
Takahashi first came into prominence as a drummer for Sadistic Mika Band, a troupe led by Kazuhiko Kato known for being the first Japanese band to perform on BBC’s “Old Grey Whistle Test”.
After the dissolution of the band, Takahashi would then go be a guest performer on other bands, and in 1978, he released his first solo album “Saravah!”.
A year later Sarava’s release, Takahashi would then join Haruomi “Harry” Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto, two other Japanese music legends, to form what would become Yellow Magic Orchestra or YMO for short.
Takahashi would then write songs for the group, including their most famous song, Rydeen.
He would remain active in the music scene after YMO’s first disbandment in 1983 providing us with songs like “Drip Drip Eyes”.
Takahashi would then reunite with fellow YMO bandmate Hosono and form Sketch Show, a comedy troupe, and would eventually reunite YMO altogether with Sakamoto, who rose on his own by providing soundtracks for various movies and video games.
After many years of battling brain cancer that started during the summer of 2020, he succumbed to it and passed away on January 14th, 2023.
I know that I do not know Mister Takahashi personally but I do enjoy the music he worked on with his fellow YMO bandmates and to think that the group will never be the same again after this is just shocking to me as it is to the people he worked with and with fellow YMO fans.
May his soul rest in peace.
Rayas-WEB 