Y.A.C.H.T. stands for Young Americans Challenging High Technology. If you've heard the name before, then perhaps they set up your website for you, just one of the other services offered by Oregon denizen, Jona Bechtolt, when not lending his musical hands to Little Wings, Bobby Birdman, The Blow, and seemingly the entire K Records roster or creating his own homespun, upbeat, and tightly crafted laptop joyrides. Mr. Bechtold certainly has his fingers in many pots, but if his second solo release, Super Warren MMIV, is any indication, the young man is simply an energy laden workaholic, because this is a tremendously impressive record.
Bechtolt's music, by all appearances, is truly an extension of himself, as his web log will show. It is completely devoid of the self-importance and pretense becoming more and more common in IDM these days. Lighthearted and playful from the get-go, the finely tuned glitches and swirls of densely harmonized synths charm you like a care bear and whisks you off to the party down the block with all the straight-edge kids who simply want to laugh, dance, and have an alcohol-free good time. Once the first couple bouncy and driving bars of "SHTML" hit you, you're hooked and happy whether you like it or not. "The Denver Nuggets" is pure deconstructed, processed pop bliss and Bechtolt's skill as a programmer shines brightly in tracks like "I Asked If We Could Have Sex One Last Time." Super Warren MMIV is sheer joy, and if you don't walk away from it with a skip in your step, then brother you may simply be beyond help.
Whether an advertisement for his IT solutions or a grand endeavor in its own right, the music of Y.A.C.H.T. serves boldly to show that laptop music can have distinct human innocence about it. These robots we tinker with can wear our smiles for us and make the indie kids twitter and twirl. Yes, my friends, it's quite a time to be alive.
1. Jonathan Bechtolt
2. SHTML
3. Remember What This Feels Like
4. I Needed A Change
5. I Asked If We Could Have Sex One Last Time
6. Bunny & Duck's Boat House
7. Do You Remember The Summer?
8. Glowing Rock, Melting Bones
9. Flying And Biting
10. I Will Bend Backwards
11. The Denver Nuggets
12. We Want Tofu
13. I'll Be Happy
14. Doctor Tunde Babs
15. From The Sky, Down
16. Lulling You