Neuromatic (2021 Yoshinori Sunahara Remastering)

Album review

Although Yukihiro Takahashi is probably best-known outside of Japan as the drummer and primary vocalist for Yellow Magic Orchestra, his career—like fellow YMO members Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto—was well-established before the group's late '70s and early '80s international successes. And, like Hosono and Sakamoto, Takahashi would continue to develop his own musical identity after the group paused their activities in 1984. But while his bandmates would go far afield in their solo musical explorations both during and after YMO, Takahashi's approach remained somewhat more traditional in its sound. Released in 1981, Neuromantic is his third solo album, and like the two that came before it, builds on a sonic fusion of the forward-looking electronics of YMO and the sophisticated city op of his former band, the Sadistic Mika Band (later, the Sadistics), whose "Tokyo Taste" is a stone-cold classic of the genre. To be sure, Neuromantic is very much an early '80s synth-pop album, and the rhythm-forward electro-grooves here are richly produced and exceedingly modern (for 1981, at least). However, they are explicitly less experimental-sounding than one might expect from a member of YMO. Even when things seem like they may be getting a little wild (for instance, the warbly, noisy intro of "Extra-Ordinary"), they quickly reorient themselves to a lush, 4/4 smoothness. Takahashi's breathy, melodramatic singing style is perfectly suited to the material, and when he occasionally comes off like Bryan Ferry fronting a Kraftwerk-covering lounge band (as he does on "Drip Dry Eyes"), it is a sublime concoction. (It should not be at all surprising that the album features contributions from Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay, as well as his then-bandmates Hosono and Sakamoto.) Even on more insistently electronic numbers ("Connection," "Charge," "Glass") the arrangements still give plenty of room for Takahashi's pop-purist approach, making the material feel vastly more humane and considered than other synth-driven albums of the era. Maybe it's due to his background as a drummer, or it could be because of his time in the smooth-rock trenches of city pop, but whatever the reason, the album's lush, futuristic charm makes it easy to see what Takahashi uniquely brought to Yellow Magic Orchestra and shines a light on his important contributions to this era of Japanese pop music. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz