Rating: NN
Trumpeted as a musical breakthrough for Jona Bechtolt, the Portland-based producer/performer behind the Blow and this backronym-named project (which supposedly stands for Young Americans Challenging High Technology), See Mystery Lights sets up interesting, cool-sounding art punk dance grooves that take us nowhere.
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The addition of Claire L. Evans’s vocals is welcome, but Bechtolt’s quasi-spiritual obsession with repetitive structures leads to eight-minute songs made up of one-minute ideas. Summer Song is a less catchy, overproduced version of a sound !!! nailed back in 2003, while opener Ring The Bell reaches into Hot Chip B-side territory. Interesting, but not mind-blowing.
Top track: The Afterlife
