We first wrote about Yot Club back in January, describing how the “glimmering blend of dream pop and chillwave” combined a downbeat vocal style with tropical jangles to produce a sound akin to “watching a day end from the bottom of a chlorinated pool.”
Yot Club’s latest EP, Beach Bleach takes this idea further, fully embracing the sunny warmth hinted at previously. Opening with the gentle swell of the ocean, ‘Blowfish’ establishes the balmy aesthetic, the vocals pitched firmly in the dour, disaffected style in the verses before the chorus arrives with genuine pop radiance.
‘Faded’ dials back the tempo to amp up the tropic dreaminess, like surf rock as imagined on vacation postcards, the specifics softened into a colourful ideal. Wrapped in a taut rhythm, ‘Japan’ is the most insistent track on the release, a kind of cross between the summer tempos of El Guincho and the hazy vocals of other late-00s blogger buzz bands. The result is a strange duality, the keen energy offset by a disassociated vibe, lending the whole thing the trademark Yot Club dreaminess.
Closer ‘Apartments’ drops the rhythm once more, a crepuscular synth pop number rendered syrupy and soft. The sadness here is rendered in classic smooth rock tones, heartbreak and longing as felt post-pina colada(s) in some Caribbean beach bar, the sunset lighting the beach with a lurid retro glow.
Bleach Beach is out now and available on Spotify.