YACHT

Artists will spend their whole career searching for the elusive beast that will turn out to be their defining work. Portland, Oregon, artist/musician Jona Bechtolt, who records under the moniker YACHT as a solo artist, has likely done that with his fourth album, See Mystery Lights. Throughout, Bechtolt exercises his propensity for shunning convention and cramming multifarious elements into his inspired electronic music. The album starts with a fury of jagged synths and pulsating beats — coming to a head with “I’m In Love with a Ripper.” The track is a menacing opus — complete with a savage bass line and eerie background yelps — that perfectly showcases Bechtolt’s newest addition to his YACHT project: Claire L. Evans. Evans’ addition to the band is a graceful one, infusing See Mystery Lights with demure, restrained vocals and what appear to be likeminded musical tendencies. What starts off as an album questioning the afterlife diffuses into a cavalcade of dense, funky rhythms — maintaining an unapologetically frenetic tempo that cements the album’s unique charm. It takes unparalleled gumption, something Bechtolt has in spades, to produce an album — scratch that, a statement — like See Mystery Lights.