YACHT
See Mystery Lights
DFA Records
DFA Records, the label of LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture and several others, has developed a reputation over the last couple of years for releasing music that manages to be challenging, sonically inventive, off-kilter and funky as hell. And with the release of the Portland, Oregon-based YACHT’s See Mystery Lights, DFA attempts to expand their reputation with potentially the strangest release and most mysterious release yet. YACHT, originally the solo side project of creative force Jona Bechtolt, has gone through a number of weird incarnations and somewhat random name changes – at one point YACHT was an acronym for Young Americans Challenging High Technology and although they seem to have dropped the acronym, I’ve also seen album artwork that has depicted them as Y∆CHT. And from what I can tell, the new moniker and the album title are largely inspired by the mysterious lighting phenomena seen in the Western Texas desert. For a brief moment, all of this seems ridiculous, bizarre and utterly brilliant – that is until the similarities between YACHT, DEVO, the Talking Heads and even the Tom Tom Club become glaringly apparent and obvious. If they were only to drop some of the shtick, their music which at times manages to be wildly inventive would really shine.
Starting with the Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian percussion in the first few bars of “Ring the Bell,” there’s this sense that YACHT may very well be aping off of Vampire Weekend until the song slowly morphs into a swirling fog of electronic beeps, blips and boops. “The Afterlife” is a sugary, art pop song that’s strongly reminiscent of a bare bones version of Elastica’s “Connection” complete with what sounds like handclaps holding up part of the rhythm. “It’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want,” starts off with some angular post-punk guitar, a simple pounding drum backbeat and simple lyrics delivered in a child-like and gleeful sing-song manner that builds up a rushing and overwhelming momentum – and then suddenly changes towards an insistent keyboard plink. The lyrics are simple throughout but the gleefulness of the song is fucking infectious. (Seriously, as I write this, I’m playing the song in my head and I have a gigantic smile and I’m bouncing around in my chair. Ridiculous, yes but true.) “Summer Song” has a classic DFA Records sound – off kilter electronic funk with copious amounts of cowbell and handclaps reminiscent of both the Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers” on their Echoes album and of the new LCD Soundsystem album. I kept wondering if James Murphy somehow secretly produced it. Some of the sampled and pirated beats take freely from what sounds like Chinese Kung Fu movies, random ephemera and assorted crap – and because of repeated listens reveal subtle new sounds you may not have noticed before.
As much fun as the album is, I was plagued by the fact that for the most part while I was listening to See Mystery Lights, I could easily tell who many of their influences are. “I’m in Love With a Ripper” sounds a helluva lot like a flashier, po-mo Tom Tom Club, “The Afterlife” sounds much like Fear of Music or Speaking in Tongues-era Talking Heads. Musically, there are some fantastic ideas that brim beneath the surface, even if the whole thing isn’t always the most original thing I’ve ever heard but this album is definitely a summer album.
Release Date April 28, 2009
Re-Released on July 28, 2010
Track Listing
1. Ring the Bell
2. The Afterlife
3. I’m in Love With a Ripper
4. It’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want
5. Psychic City (Voodoo City)
6. Summer Song
7. We Have All We Ever Wanted
8. Don’t Fight the Darkness
9. I’m in Love With a Ripper (Party Mix)
10. Psychic City (Version)
