August 4, 2004

{ Y.A.C.H.T. - Super Warren MMIV }

Laptop music has never sounded this intimate. Jona Bechtolt (under the also-known-as moniker Y.A.C.H.T.) serves up something organic and warm with this release- it's the sonic equivalent of reading someone's live-journal or diary. Moments of happiness bleed into jilted and discordant rants, you hear love made and unmade, listening to a heart break and mend, break and mend. With very few words, this album speaks volumes. Despite the personal tone, there are a number of very accessible moments of electro-pop brilliance to be found, along with some devastatingly catchy 8-bit digital orchestration. It may seem wrong to bop your head along to the soundtrack of someone's messy love life, but the best songs always seem to be inspired by such. It helps considerably that Bechtolt doesn't wallow in his misery: His dark clouds don't just have a silver lining- they have fucking rainbows shooting out of them. Standouts for me include; "SHTML"- the boppy lead-in that sounds like the best video game soundtrack I've never heard, "The Denver Nuggets"- a vocoder infused discoey jam that breaks down into some nice hard beats near the end, and "Remember What This Feels Like" with its low-key dirgey outer-shell and creamy center of hot-pink danciness. Jona just hit the road on tour, starting from his homebase in Portland: Y.A.C.H.T. and tour buddy Thanksgiving will be playing in cities ranging throughout the southwest and central United States this August. In addition, his collaborative effort with The Blow is soon to be released, and it is one truly sweet slice of deliciousness. (You can actually mail order it now from States Rights Records, an action I urge you to take immediately.)

» Y.A.C.H.T.
» States Rights Records

By Adam in Music | Comments:

Comments

I'd buy most any album with a track named "Server side Hyper Text Markup Language"

Posted by: benjamin at August 6, 2004 6:02 AM

I must confess that I think of you, dear Benjamin, every time I listen to the opening tracks of this album. -Hanging out in the Man Room listening to Super Madrigal Brothers and Bit Shifter, playing some Animal Crossing. Them was the good old days.
OLD TIMES! OOOOOLD TIMES!

Posted by: Adam at August 6, 2004 4:19 PM