Yukihiro Takahashi: S & D

I believe I've mentioned this on one of the other YMO threads but this asami kado album produced by mr. YT is one of my fave things he's done:
https://www.discogs.com/Asami-Kado-La-Fleur-Bleue/master/1102921
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFIJtZjISWo

as for YT's solo stuff, those two records are solid. but generally... I feel like his albums are really patchy? I prefer hosono myself. um, very strongly.

I like Takahashi's solo stuff the least of any YMO member (including Matsutake), but he's still an essential member of YMO. His combined live/Electronic drum sound is very distinct, and so are his vocals.

A lot of YMO records have a vocal melody that's pretty hard to follow, because Takahashi is sort of speaking/singing in a Lou Reed kind of way, and then there appears to be a pitch LFO on his voice on top of that. That style is all over BGM, and I have never heard that anywhere else -- except this Minks record from 2010.

for sure! I particularly love his playing on "perspective"; it's a drum track that doesn't draw much attention to itself at first but is so crisp, lean, and propulsive. and those fills rule <3

yukihiro wrote some absolute classics.. "ballet", "rydeen"...

whoa @ that Minks track. that is a really distinct effect.

I'm surprised how well he's kept up his drumming, especially since he's been a frontman/solo artist for like the last 30+ years. This track (which feels to me like an update of "Expected Way") has some real superb drumming of it, a bit more complex even than what he was doing in his YMO days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkc5u9r5VF4

new Beatniks album coming soon, that's unexpected

and again. this time called "Exitentialist a Xie Xie"

I guess I've only just now pored over that first album. Despite featuring two excellent musicians I never really gave it much time. It's quite an odd little record, they intentionally go for a weird outsider and somewhat avant-garde vibe though (as expected) the tunes are pretty good. I'm still amused that Aphex Twin remixed a track from it on his "26 Mixes For Cash" album. No way did anyone pay him any money for that!

awesome

ビートニクスが今度出す新作のアナログ盤ジャケットが…大名盤セカンドのリイシューで狂喜乱舞❗ pic.twitter.com/oYLluvgmwl

— チキン カツ夫 (@djwaffle) April 21, 2018

Neuromantic is a masterpiece

― VENIET IMBER (imago), Monday, December 16, 2013 10:12 PM (four years ago)

No joke. Just bought it a couple of days ago and I love it.

I got a copy of What Me Worry at the beginning of the year. Has a really cool synth pop take on “It’s All Too Much”

blessed image

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/39569808_1895132173914923_2904513252153098240_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=baf50ae94f39867a437cb889ce671602&oe=5C07780F

YMO circa "Multiplies" X Sparks circa "Whomp That Sucker" would be something.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45066105_566410803773123_4338783272453537792_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=79faa70de92d9a4b70f387192b7e75f0&oe=5C88E1B8

the drummer for the greatest band of all time, and Ringo Starr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOoENQtlA-s

i skipped straight to 29:00 for some reason, and just like magic i heard some talking head in a documentary saying "punk was a response to the perception of theatrical excess in genres such as progressive rock"

Yeah that Druid performance is ghastly

Druid cementing their reputation as the British Starcastle there.

Ha, Cedric Sharpley on drums! I don't think he brought the gong with him when he joined Gary Numan's band.

What was the video MaresNest posted up here, two months ago? It's gone.

I've been listening quite a lot to Takahashi's later solo albums, and they're really nice. 'Neuromantic' is an all time classic, but I've never really bothered with his more traditional song-based albums. 'Page by Page' has guest contributions by Lali Puna, Cornelius, among others, it's good. But it's 'Blue Moon Blue' that I keep returning to.

It was Sadistic Mika Band on The Old Grey Whistle Test, someone was uploading full episodes, off-air recordings with the clocks and all, guess it wouldn't last long before the BBC shut them down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8f_t6NY7mo

This one? :)

Yeppers, with fantastically racist modified GLEY in the signage at the back of the studio.

lol that he's been making that same lip-biting face while drumming for 40 years

forgot there's a few YT albums I haven't caught up on. I thought Blue Moon Blue was pretty good. I actually like The Dearest Fool from 1999 a lot. From '95 on his stuff got good again...there's a whole decade of YT stuff (from say, 1984 to 1994) that I don't really have any interest in.

blessed image

METAFIVE✨ pic.twitter.com/VhrFg4lcXn

— TOWA TEI (@towatei) April 25, 2019

1) who is the guy on the bottom? (not Cornelius, the other one)
2) how is Takahashi five years older than my Dad?

ok so a Page by Page track showed up on shuffle ("Atomic Chicken Dog") and for the first 3 minutes I was like, "what Mouse on Mars track is this?"

I feel guilty about being so sniffy towards YT for years, he rules, not quite as hard as HH but damn close.

I always end up listening to a lot of YMO this time of year.

Just been going through some of Takahashi's early 80s albums and they are blowing me away all over again. I think I've been sleeping on how brilliant What Me Worry is. I need more albums like this.

Also, Murdered By The Music! That album is a ridiculous amount of fun.

picked up Neuromantic on vinyl in a tiny second hand store recently and its reaaaaally great stuff. love it.

That's a good find. Possibly my favourite of his.

That is a good find! Is it the Alfa or the Epic lp? And how much did you pay? (expecting an unassumed 0.50 price tag here)

Also, Murdered By The Music! That album is a ridiculous amount of fun.

― kitchen person, Tuesday, November 26, 2019 12:12 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

"School Of Thought" is amazing

"disposable love" off what me worry is a gem too

but you all know this <3

so many great songs on Murdered by the Music - really love "Kid-Nap the Dreamer" (and the weird ass ska coda), "Blue Colour Worker", and "Radioactivist"

that last one was even on one of the Metafive live albums

those 3 LPs he did concurrent with YMO are excellent of course, anyone who digs the poppier side of YMO will love those three. I also like some of his later discs, particularly The Dearest Fool from '99 which has some really choice tunes on it

they actually had 2 copies. it was about £4 and average condition, plays totally fine. not sure of the pressing/label as dont have it to hand.

i'm guessing a lot of YMO connected records had fairly good western distribution compared to most other Japanese artists in the 70s/80s... in the UK at least

Didn't Yen have distribution in Europe?

At least anecdotally, Takahashi's solo LPs seem pretty easy to get hold of over here, way more than Hosono and Sakamoto.

I got my copy of Wild & Moody in a tiny shop in Bruges, of all places.

(Here = London)

yeah, I see copies of them fairly regularly at record fairs and shops round here (uk south coast)

BLESSED IMAGE

https://i.imgur.com/PhbxbBX.jpg

wow!!

is there a picture of Ron Mael breaking character?

brain tumor :(

http://amass.jp/138576/

fortunately he seems to be doing okay, hope all is well with the guy

That's sad news. Hope he pulls through. I was just listening to What Me Worry yesterday. It's such a masterpiece.

Damn :(

Fuck that shit :(

oof, hang in there, mr. yt. it's gonna work out.

by chance, i just purchased a copy of Wild & Moody yesterday, haven't even listened to it yet. bad news about takahashi - wishing the best for him.

:(