Hot Disc: YACHT
The DFA (dfarecords.com) machine—cranking out new-new-wave hits that occasionally leak from the cool kids to the club kids—breaks down a little when it comes to YACHT (www.myspace.com/yacht). Newly a twosome, with the formerly solo Jona Bechtolt enlisting Portland artist and musician Claire L. Evans to sing along, the LP See Mystery Lights is their debut on James Murphy’s indie-electronic label. (They were signed last year, after recording “Summer Song” as an ode to the LCD Soundsystem frontman and DFA Records ringmaster.)
It should be a hit parade—“Ring the Bell” has a bone-rattling build-up, and “Psychic City (Voodoo City)” is very nearly a major rave. But YACHT either stumbles or willfully strays from the formula, every time: Bechtolt lets his beats break down into junkyard electro-jams, while Evans sings would-be-catchy lyrics in a couldn’t-care-less whisper. The result is frustrating and irresistible. Start with a few repeated listens of “The Afterlife”—it’s not trying to hook you, but maybe that’s why it sinks so deep.