When musical duo YACHT released “Terminal Beach,” this week, Claire Evans (aka @TheUniverse) tweeted that the song is based on one very bizarre image of an ancient computer, ravaged by time and tree roots.
The image, it turns out, is from an obscure 1980s book called Zen and the Art of the MacIntosh. Created in the early days of personal computing, the book was entirely laid out on a MacIntosh — no mean feat in the days before Photoshop or Indesign. The text that accompanies this image shows an effusive enthusiasm for this new technology:
CLEARLY, A BOOK ABOUT THE CREATIVE POSSIBILITIES OF THE MAC…A KIND OF EXTENDED GRAPHIC SAFARI EXPLORING THE FURTHEST REACHES OF MACPAINT AND ITS POTENTIAL TO OPEN UP NEW TERRITORY.
“Terminal Beach” the song takes things along for a more dystopic spin. “And we washed up on a a terminal beach/ all the palm trees cell towers/ little metal coconuts,” it goes. Or how about, “We climbed inside of/ the Holy Mountain/ to stream it on demand.” It’s beautiful and it’s weird and it’s exactly what I’ve come to expect from YACHT.