Yukihiro Takahashi -- Sunset

(22:54)

I've known that the members of the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra had their gigs before they all got together to make their brand of beautifully catchy technopop music, but of the triumvirate of Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi（細野晴臣・坂本龍一・高橋幸宏）, drummer Takahashi was the one that I knew least about when it came to his pre-YMO days. Of course, I knew about his days with YMO including his hand in the creation of one of the band's greatest hits, "Rydeen" and I now know some of his current career as a member of the eclectic METAFIVE collective. But before YMO? Nada.

Then, last night I came across this video which featured Takahashi's first solo album, "Saravah!" from June 1978. According to the Wikipedia write-up, the album was named after a record label founded by French composer-singer Pierre Barouh and its tracks were based on French pop music, the concept coming about in Takahashi's head during his time as a member of the Sadistic Mika Band.

One of the tracks happens to be called "Sunset" and it was written and composed by Takahashi as this little ditty which comes across as a relaxed City Pop number peppered with some of that twee YMO technopop (not quite sure of any French pop influences here). Not surprising, since his buddies Hosono and Sakamoto helped out on bass and keyboards respectively...and singer Rajie was on backing vocals. But this is definitely not a YMO tune.

"Saravah!" was actually released a few months before YMO's very first album came out, so I've now got an inkling of his past work.