WELCOME TOPARADISE
Utopia, Dance Music and The Yacht Belief System: A Religion for Tomorrow Alex Miller
Photography Mallory Cummins
“Hello my children. Hello my sons. Hello my
youth. Here is why.
evolution of both body and collective psyche.
daughters. Hello my brothers and sisters.
The triangle trumps the cross. Don’t get me
I am here to tell you that the world’s last
wrong, the cross looks pretty sweet. Problem is,
precipice of the arm on the cross. It’s time to switch
unpleasant experience will be a precisely
it’s rigid. Religion has always been about life and
to a new system; one where all we have to do is round
datable event.” These are the words of the band
afterlife—two totally separate realms, no crossover
the corner to move into a new era. We merely need
Mankind has stagnated; we have reached the
YACHT. They are signed to DFA and they sound like
or room for deviation from the plan. You live, you die,
to change the lens through which we view the world.
a B-52s/LCD Soundsystem super group. But YACHT
you pass to some other world where things are either
The future, the past, you, me, everything, are all one,
is much more than a band. YACHT is a belief system.
way better or way worse.
flowing into each other for eternity. Every instance of
Steeped in quasi-religious iconography, mystic
I prefer the symbol of YACHT, the triangle, the
time and space simultaneously occurring. The future
symbolism and messianic presentation, YACHT is
delta, the ultimate symbol of change. Three beautiful,
is tomorrow, the future is yesterday, and the future
genuinely obsessed with utopian ideals and seek to
equal lines flowing into one another for eternity.
is today.
make the future manifest now via loosely defined
It’s really quite poetic. It’s also entirely consistent.
YACHT has made great strides toward perfecting
concept of paradise engineering. See, YACHT isn’t
The triangle is constantly in motion. There are no
the communal worship experience. Like Christianity, YACHT encourages both personal introspection and
about specifics; YACHT is about interpretation. In fact,
judgments or preconditions. There is no exclusivity,
the efforts of front-man Jona Bechtolt have made
no squabbling over interpretation. All of mankind
divine experience in a group setting through song
YACHT into an utterly postmodern, techno-hippie
could stand united under the triangle, devoted to
and dance. They are the pioneers and have perfected
Protestantism—the ultimate religious experience
change and progress.
the emotional high where the crowd feeds off one
for the emerging class of artistically minded hipster 28
CURRENTS • SPRING 2012
The triangle means improvement as a race,
another’s energy and transcends reality to commune