Electronic Breath

Old school
Yello

Yello's logo

I have decided to make multiple posts about bands that have influenced electronic music. I will start this collection off with Yello, the Swiss electronica band. There is no reason for Yello being the first band overviewed except that I am listening to it at the moment.

Short history

I think it would be hard to find a person who does not know the famous song “Oh yeah”, but probably only a small part of those people know that this song was created by a band called Yello, a band that was created in the late 70’s by two talented musicians – Boris Blank and Carlos Peron. Dieter Meier joined the band a bit latter, when the duo decided that they need someone who could sing well. However, the trio lasted only for a while, because Carlos Peron decided to start a solo career.

The trio (Boris Blank, Dieter Meier and Carlos Peron)

Their first single was released in 1979, it was called “I.T. Splash” and a year later they released their first LP “Solid Pleasure”(which featured the hit “Bostich”). As years have passed they released 11 more studio albums and a bunch of remix and compilation albums. Yello created many singles that were ranked very well in chart positions( Bostich, Jungle Bill, Vicious Games, Oh yeah, Tremendous Pain and much more)

Their music

One of the reasons why Yello stood out of the other electronica bands was the unique sounds used in producing their music, even listening to it today you can feel the originality and creativity flowing from each song. In addition to great music, Dieter Meier has a great, deep and dark voice which fits in great with the music created. The interesting thing is, the music is created first, only then lyrics are written and recorded on top.

Just facts

Yello almost never uses samples that were already used and Boris Black created most of them. It is known that his collection of samples is over 100 000 original samples.
Dieter Meier is not only the vocalist of Yello, he is also a multimillionaire industrialist, a professional poker player and a one time member of the Swiss national golf team. Now THAT’S what I call multitasking!
Dieter Meier also directed most of the bands music videos.