Yello

In the sacred family tree of Techno, Yello are the mad Uncle; always entertaining but you're never sure whether to invite them round for Christmas.

And there's a sweet, hive smell about them that you can't get off the cushions...



Spawned in the hot houses of 1979 Switzerland, Yello consisted of Dieter Meier - professional gambler, Alpine horse thief and Law Student and Boris Blank - Cow Scraper and Truck driver (Boris later turned out to be a slightly detourned Dave Ball and went on to form the splinter group Soft Cell with Marc Almond).

Somehow, the music escaped Switzerland, intoxicating, amongst others, Afrika Bambaata and leaving a thin slice of techgnosis open for others to crawl through... it's hard to tell Yello's direct influence because they seemed reluctant to play too hard at raking any commercial beans, even once they had a hit with Oh Yeah and later with The Race but I'd like to think they pre-figured the sideways moves into raw silliness later frequented by The Orb and some of the Acid House / I Think Therefore I Ambient crowd (Knights of the Occasional Table etc) and thus put a temporary tumour in the throats of all those darker knights who saw Techno as a means to express Orwellian themes or dystopian vistas.

But I guess they still weren't as funny as Gary Numan.

Listen closely to Oh Yeah, I'd swear there's a tiny, freaked out Baby Ford stuck inside somewhere, chained to a huge multi-patch valve computer, trying desperately to work out which way is Up...

Bom, bom.

Oh Yeah


Blender


Desire


The Race (eccentric remix)


Sweet Thunder