Yellow Magic Orchestra returns to tour

Electropop pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), who brought synthpop to the world along with Kraftwerk in the 1980s, will play their first UK show since October 1980.

English trip hop group Massive Attack, who helped define British pop for 20 years, are the curators for the influential Meltdown Festival, and have invited Yellow Magic Orchestra to perform at London’s Royal Festival Hall on June 15; YMO then added another show at Auditorium Ciudad De La Cultura in Gijon, Spain, on June 19.

YMO has been the leading figure of electronic music in Japan since the late 1970s, and have influenced countless techno/hiphop/pop/rock musicians throughout the world with their innovations that included the integration of exotic sounds and techno elements in its so-called “computer music.”

Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, the founding members of YMO, last performed under the YMO moniker at Live Earth’s Kyoto stage on July 7, 2007, a performance hailed by Rolling Stone as the worldwide festival’s best reunion performance.

Massive Attack will perform at the beginning and at the end of the festival, as well as mix a live performance of the Blade Runner soundtrack by the Heritage Orchestra. The band's other picks for Meltdown include appearances from Gang of Four, Grace Jones, Johnny Clarke, Stiff Little Fingers performing their 1979 debut "Inflammable Material" in its entirety, the Tom Tom Club, and George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic.