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The Blow (Pitchfork)
by Zach Baron
It's late September, and Khaela Maricich is in New York City, playing the first of two local shows in support of her new record, Paper Television. Maricich is in the middle of "Pardon Me"; she's just sung the part that goes and I lay, before youuu and now entering the speakers is the bridge, what the liner notes call a "melodic interpretation of the first verse"-- a plastic-horn synth line, honking bass, G-Funk winding organ, and handclaps. Maricich is alone onstage-- her bandmate, YACHT's Jona Bechtolt, is on a tour of his own-- and there's no singing during this part, no instruments for her to play. With a visible gulp, she steels herself; and as the bridge hits she takes off across stage, shaking her shoulders, bouncing up and down, four feet up onstage from the crowd and totally by herself. You feel awful for her and touched at the same time.
It wasn't always this way: Prior to Paper Television, the Blow was a solo operation, and Maricich alone could never make tracks like these, crowded with wobbly, stuttering snares and claps, keyboarded flutes, horns, and crowd noise interpolations. Credit for these belongs to Bechtolt-- a cracked-laptop wizard who, as YACHT, has been pulling a similar beats/karaoke/dance routine live for three or four years. His production is a brilliant and versatile grab bag of popular culture, equal parts Missy Elliott-style chart rap and Yaz'n'Soft Cell-like new wave keyboard pop, all shook up and spit out sideways.
Now and then, Maricich and Bechtolt run through public airwaves and pop music like what's there is theirs for the taking. It didn't always feel like they were giving back: They got to be artistes, artists were source material, and we the incidental audience. Not so here: "We have a new record, and we didn't rip anything off to do it-- we swear." This is how Khaela Maricich decides to introduce the one song she didn't really write-- her take on a Police jam-- back in New York. (read the full article on Pitchfork)
