Most folks will know Jona Bechtolt as the other member of the Blow. When singer Khaela Maricich toured the Blow in the last year, Jona was absent. This was the case at both of the recent the Blow tour stops I was able to attend: with Of Montreal and at The Sasquatch Music Festival. Jona's very good excuse for all this absence is, of course, his band YACHT.
Computer programmed music has been seeping into the mainstream with the return of 80s synths and drum machines by way of dance punk and new rave. Smarter, sexier pop music from the Northwest has also recently been electronic: the Blow, Teeth and Hair, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, Panther, Copy, and all the other bands that frequently play Holocene in Portland. YACHT is a part of this scene, but also in the tradition of more folk inspired music, in the realm of K Records.
So instead of pressing the play button on the CD player/laptop/turntable for the Blow's live show, Jona toured with the decidedly less synthetic Architecture in Helsinki this spring. I didn't see the tour but I heard positive things from friends who went.
YACHT would sound like really pretentious electronic pop if the lyrics were less playful. Energetic, enigmatic songs tend to go in all directions. I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real. goes in so many more directions than the average pop music project it takes a few listens to understand how the music makes you feel. I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh along, be depressed, or feel nostalgic for an era when music as cheesy, heartfelt, or danceable could have made it on to the radio.
The lyrics draw from the self-assessment and approval of rap and the emphatic repetition of electronica. Typical is "How do you like it? / How do you like it? / It's priceless / It's priceless," from "The Magic Beat". There are leftist jabs at consumerism and apathy throughout the album and an especially urgent call for women to "Take over / If you don't the world will come to and end / And it won't take long," on the album's final track. These somewhat dark statements are balanced by the lightness and ease of the instrumentation on the record, which defiantly stands out as eclectic and innovative.
I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real. was put out by Portland based Marriage Records, but a long list of indie labels are associated with YACHT (the liner notes thank no less than ten labels!). Label mates include Thanksgiving, Karl Blau, and the Dead Science.
Pitchfork gave the album a mediocre rating, but I think I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real. attempts really ambitious pop music within an even more ambition community of pop musicians. If the whole thing doesn’t fit together perfectly, then fantastic, nothing does. Breakcore and folk together never sounded so resolved.
YACHT is about to start a Japan tour with Au Revior Simone & Montag. Then it's off to Australia and festivals, but surely Jona will be back in the states at some point. See Jona live. It is a theatrical, shamanistic, danceable, transcendental treat.