Paying tribute to the visionary Yellow Magic Orchestra member and Oscar-winning composer, who died last month at 71 from cancer.
Most people would identify Düsseldorf, Germany, or Detroit—hometowns of Kraftwerk and Cybotron, respectively—as the birthplace of techno. Some might make a case for Sheffield, England, and its scions the Human League and Cabaret Voltaire. One city that never comes up is Tokyo. Yet Yellow Magic Orchestra—the trio of Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto—has arguably the strongest claim of all to the “Godfathers of Techno” title.
Formed in 1978, YMO’s sound centered around synthesizers and was largely aimed at the dancefloor. But unlike any of the other contenders above, a substantial proportion of their early recordings consisted of instrumentals—one of techno’s hallmarks. True, those albums used Takahashi’s hands-on drumming rather than programmed beats. But perhaps what ought to sway the decision in the Japanese group’s favor is that they were the first to use the word “techno” in connection with their music. Their second album, 1979’s Solid State Survivor, kicks off with “Technopolis,” and the record’s success in their home country spawned a Japanese form of New Wave known as technopop. Their fifth album, released in 1981, was called Technodelic. Then, clinching the contest, YMO released an EP called The Spirit of Techno in 1983—a year before Cybotron’s single “Techno City,” and while Kraftwerk struggled to complete an album with the working title Techno Pop.
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