Description

Recorded in Marfa, Texas, Yachts See Mystery Lights is an intimate party record that was captured in widescreen Technicolor.

Lead tracks include Summer Song and the sublimely catchy Psychic City, mixing electro and post punk rhythms seamlessly.

Jona Bechtolt founding member of Yacht, former member of the Blow is a huge talent, something that may not have been readily apparent on any of his three previous full lengths. Those albums, created largely as solo endeavours, will not have prepared listeners for See Mystery Lights.

Now an official partnership between Bechtolt and Claire L Evans, who performed on several songs on 2007s I Believe In You, Your Magic Is Real, Yacht finally feel like a full-fledged band with direction and vision, particularly given the added weight (or rather, levity) of Evans influence.

The songs on See Mystery Lights from the bouncy, burbling you- cant-take-it-with-you screed The Afterlife (which plays like a less hyper companion piece to the Mae Shis Run To Your Grave) to the roller rink-ready Vocoder vocals of Im In Love With A Ripper represent Yacht at their most poppy.

The album is a collection of stone jams that finds the band finally as Hellbent on experimenting and expanding the boundaries of its sonic scope as it is on having fun. Built on electronic foundations laser effects, skittering computerized beats and spacey synth lines (or guitar riffs that have been tuned or distorted to sound like synths) these new songs are giddy with creative freedom while remaining tethered in service of their melodies.

The vocal melodies are bright and buoyant but delivered (by either band member, or in unison) in a chanted, oftentimes detached monotone that plays up the repetitive lyrics mantra-like feel and adds a welcome undercurrent of slacker cool to their otherwise sugary optimism.

For fans of Hot Chip, Cut Copy, Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, Tanlines, Phantogram.