YACHT

See Mystery Lights

(DFA)

Record Review by Alex Pudlin

Jona Bechtolt knows his drum sounds.  As the former beatmeister for The Blow and current mastermind of YACHT, Bechtolt has enticed us with the many instruments of his electronic fabrics. But it’s Bechtolt’s percussion that truly stands out. On YACHT’s latest, See Mystery Lights, Bechtolt ensures that each snare roll, rim-shot and tom slap has a bold sound that he lovingly envelopes with an ideal balance of reverb and robust compression. Indeed, the first sound we hear on See Mystery Lights is a shaker. As album opener “Ring the Bell” builds, Bechtolt adds plenty of noteworthy instrumental flourishes but the layers of sleigh bells, hand claps and additional shaker lines actually propel the song along.  Even the vocal effects and staccato synth lines serve as percussive elements.  It’s an auspicious opening that Bechtolt promptly buries with uninspired Animal Collective-aping vocals.

Much of See Mystery Lights’ success ratio hinges on the vocals. When the hooks and vocal performances gel, the tracks soar, but when they don’t, not even Bechtolt’s expert poly-rhythms can save the day. On the funky synth-pop groove of “I’m In Love with a Ripper,” Bechtolt’s speak-singing works in tandem with the delicious backing track thanks to a savvy use of the now-dreaded auto-tune. The second half of “It’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want” uses faux-Talking Heads ramblings to good effect. However, we first have to wade through Bechtolt’s facsimile of Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself” during the aptly titled first half of the track.

Bechtolt and partner Claire L. Evans’ vocal performances suffer from an overall lack of enthusiasm. On “The Afterlife,” Evans sings with about as much passion as Condoleezza Rice. Even the near pop-gem of “Psychic City” barely works due to Evans’ lackluster karaoke-esque performance. Furthermore, no catchiness overcome the excruciating mock-machismo grunts that Evans and Bechtolt utter throughout the song. At least Bechtolt effectively recasts the grunts as a tribal mating call on a bonus remix of “Psychic City” that closes out the album.

None of these scathing critiques are meant to suggest that you should avoid See Myestery Lights altogether. Musically, YACHT’s DFA debut pulses and pops throughout, especially on the bass-pounding groove of “Summer Song.” Now if James Murphy would just convince Bechtolt to ditch the vocals in the future or at least re-cut an instrumental version of the album, then we’d be all set.