Yatta! by YĪN YĪN

On their fourth album Yatta!, the celebrated Dutch quartet YĪN YĪN extends, bends, and ignites a joyous mix of disco, funk, surf, psychedelia, and Southeast Asian motifs. UNCUT magazine previously dubbed their highly addictive sound “cosmic disco”—a fitting starting point—but as Yatta! proves, the band's sonic footprint is an ever-evolving kaleidoscope of sounds, textures, and beats.

As with their breakthrough album Mount Matsu (2024), their devotion to getting the dance floor moving remains front and center. That impulse, already strong, has intensified — Yatta! lifting it to an ecstatic next level.

The result? An album that reveals a band whose groove just keeps getting deeper.

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The opening track on YĪN YĪN’s new album, Yatta!, begins with a sample of the philosopher Alan Watts expounding: “There is no Yang without Yin and no Yin without Yang.”

Appropriately enough, the track – a jubilantly upbeat slice of disco action – is called “In Search of Yang,” and begs a question about the meaning of the group’s name. The group’s drummer and co-founder, Kees Berkers, explains: “Yin Yang is about balance between two different forces and Yin Yin would essentially mean two negative forces that cannot reach a common ground. So, YĪN YĪN is about finding a balance in the unbalanced.”

Certainly, over the last six years, the quartet from Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands has built a reputation for balancing an eclectic range of influences and using them to forge something that is affectionately retro and, at the same time, fresh and forward-facing.

The group’s origins lie in an experimental jam session in a remote village ballet school in 2017, leading to the release of the single, “Dion Ysiusk,” the following year. The debut album, The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers was released in 2019, followed by The Age of Aquarius in 2022. After a few personnel changes, the quartet’s line-up had, by 2023, arrived at its current form of Kees Berkers (drums), Remy Scheren (bass), Jerôme Scheren (keyboards) and Erik Bandt (guitar). 2024 saw the release of Mount Matsu, now followed by the group’s most complete statement to date, Yatta!

From the beginning, YĪN YĪN have been devoted to exploring global sounds with an emphasis on getting the dance floor moving – an impulse that reaches its peak on Yatta!

One major influence is the sound of Italo Disco – the spacey brand of disco music that arose in Italy in the late 1970s. “It has something of a mystique,’ says Berkers. “All the producers were using new recording techniques and effects, but there are not many pictures or videos of how they were creating things in the studio. You have to use your own fantasy and create your own story about how that music is created.” You can hear that sense of mystery on tracks like “In Search of Yang,” with its endless groove and trippy backwards guitar effects.

Across the album, YĪN YĪN specialise in creating the soundtracks to dream journeys, opportunities for the listener to visit places that exist in realms of the imagination.

“That’s a big reason why the music’s instrumental,” Berkers confirms. “It leaves a lot of room for the listener to fill in the gaps. You can really make your own trip of it. It’s very movie-like.” And it’s not just the movies we get to visit. “Kasumi’s Quest” is built around a mysteriously ascending and descending synth figure, coming come across like the music to a lost computer game – “an imaginary quest of an imaginary character in an imaginary world,” says Berkers. “It could be like a difficult quest in a dungeon, and Kasumi could be the character that you’re playing.”

If there’s a general direction of travel in YĪN YĪN’s expeditions, it’s towards the east, with Asian influences coming through loud and clear. “Lecker Song” feels like a 1960s Japanese soul-funk spy movie theme with a sample of a koto buried in the mix. “Yata Yata” could be the throbbing disco soundtrack to a Thai spaghetti western. “Night in Taipei” is an atmospheric ballad summoning a fragrant evening in the Taiwanese capital, and “Pattaya Wrangler” suggests a sundown stroll on the Thai city’s golden beaches.

It's a fascination that has suffused YĪN YĪN’s sound since, in the early days, they stumbled upon a couple of compilation albums of psychedelic 60s and 70s guitar music from Southeast Asia. “Those albums had the most influence on that East Asian route we took,” Berkers recalls. “Via those compilations, we got to YouTube channels where we couldn't read anything because everything was in Thai letters or in Chinese symbols – and that felt like we found the treasure!’”

Adopting Eastern tunings has imparted an unusual feel to YĪN YĪN’s music and challenged them as songwriters.

Berkers explains: “If you're making music for a long time you get to some points where you think ‘I'm always doing the same thing.’ And then a simple YouTube channel or a compilation can give you that spark you need!”

There’s no shortage of sparks in Yatta!’s blend of dancefloor fillers and laidback soundscapes. Guitarist Erik Bandt explains: “We tried to make a mix of songs that are very energetic, danceable party starters, but also have songs that take you on trips and are more easy.”

Underpinning all of this is a welcoming, natural feel, with everything recorded directly to tape.

“It’s our most organic album to date,” says Bandt. “We recorded together as a team in the studio instead of recording separate tracks for drums, guitar, bass – it’s all live and that adds a certain feel.”

All of which explains the album’s title. Bandt says: “Yatta is a Japanese phrase meaning ‘We did it, we accomplished it!’ After we finished the album, we thought this simple phrase actually ties it all together.” Berkers continues: “It also speaks for a more general idea that we, as a band, succeeded to really become a band on a professional level. So, it's also, ‘We finally are true musicians now. We have arrived.’ Basically, we made the dream come true.”

Yatta! Is the sound of four musicians finding their own globe-trotting groove, and having the time of their lives exploring it. Lucky for us, we’re invited too.

YĪN YĪN crosses from West coast psychedelia to South-East Asian aesthetics, embracing lashings of disco, funk and electronic experimentation along the way.” -- God is in the TV

On their latest release the band is extending their unique mix of disco, funk, psychedelia and Southeast Asian music, and revealing a band whose groove just keeps getting deeper.