Yukihiro Takahashi

Website | Twitter

Yukihiro Takahashi was a Japanese musician, who was best known as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Yukihiro Takahashi first came to prominence as the drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band—and later released a solo album before joining Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono in 1978 to form Yellow Magic Orchestra.

After Yellow Magic Orchestra disbanded in the mid 80s, Takahashi continued his solo career—but would also participate in temporary reunions of both the Sadistic Mika Band & Yellow Magic Orchestra.

In 2002, Takahashi would reunite with YMO bandmate Haruomi Hosono to form the duo Sketch Show—which later performed live shows with their other YMO bandmate Ryuichi Sakamoto, under the name "Human Audio Sponge." They would reform in 2007, taking the name HASYMO or HAS/YMO, combining the names of Human Audio Sponge and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their first single under this name, "Rescue", was written for the anime film Appleseed EX Machina.

In 2014, Takahashi would form the supergroup METAFIVE (initially known as Yukihiro Takahashi & Metafive)—the band's first single "Split Spirit" would later serve as an ending theme for Ghost in the Shell: Arise

Takahashi died from brain cancer on January 14, 2023, at the age of 70.