Strong nostalgic feelings
This is the sophomore album from Zurich based four piece, Yakari, with the six track record available as a vinyl only release on Ikarus Records. Their sound is heavily steeped in late eighties alt-rock, noise-pop and new wave and brings to mind both American and UK bands like The Jesus And Mary Chain, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Sonic Youth et al. The tracks on "Feel It Two" are layered with distorted guitars and feedback and have a dreamy, drone effect, with long intros leading to sweet melodies and warm vocals.
It really is like stepping back in time; those nostalgic feelings are toyed with straight away on opener, 'Feel It Too', which is one of the strongest on the record, tuneful and full of strong riffs, but also wrapped up in washes of distortion and jangly guitars and all muffled by fuzz. Like much of the rest of the record, especially the fantastic 'Viewer', the keys and guitars produce such a strong melodic base that it almost feels like it would work equally well without vocals but then, why would you want to do without, when they are so inviting and sweetly delivered.
'Kids' is superbly dreamy, really reminiscent of "Daydream Nation" era Sonic Youth; towards the end of the track there is a blissful section where everything comes together and the melodic fuzz covers you like a blanket, it's lovely. 'Autospace' is so full and powerful it breaks through the pop to edge into heavy duty post-rock territory, however, there is a strange section in this track where a dialogue sample from "Ghostbusters" is inserted, (the whole "don't cross the streams" conversation) which doesn't quite seem to fit here as when you know the film, you know it's a bit that always makes you smirk, so it takes you right out of the moment. Despite this slight oddity, the album is a really solid one, inducing nostalgic feelings and charming you with those melodies and great vocals; it's well worth checking out.