Oh, damn! You’re lookin’ dirty! I think it’s time you had a bath!, Alpha Chrome Yayo rapped on “Funky Bath,” the opener to his November 2021 LP, Soaking, a concept album about the luxury and necessity of soaking in the tub.
Alpha Chrome Yayo – also known simply as ACY – creates smooth electro jazz that sometimes has a big dose of funk and groove that’s utterly infectious. ACY is known for bringing imaginative concepts to life – some seemingly ridiculous, yet smashingly delightful, and others dark, bruising, and dug up from the graveyard.
ACY’s magnetic spirit radiates throughout all he does. You’re just as likely to encounter ACY cooking pumpkin scones or enjoying a roaring fire in the garden as you are playing smooth jazz melodies while decked out in an outrageously colorful sweater or hosting a Black Tie Blowout for the world to join in.
ACY is also a prolific independent musician. So, this raises the question – who in the world is Alpha Chrome Yayo? He told me the story. Put another log on the fire and settle in. It’s a good one.
Who is Alpha Chrome Yayo?
It all began one fateful night under a blood red moon….wait, no, really, ACY is Peter McCaughan who hails from Belfast, Ireland. But, Peter explained, there’s a hint of truth to the “blood red moon” element to the beginnings of ACY. He initially became interested in synthesizers to produce his own soundtracks to Dungeons & Dragons games, which have plenty of blood and weird moons. The leap to ACY wasn’t a big one – Peter reasoned, if “Tangerine Dream can score sword ‘n’ sorcery epics one minute, and then create proto-synthwave soundtracks such as Thief the next, why couldn’t I?”
The origins of ACY goes back further, however, to a most excellent beginning. Peter said, “One of my very, very earliest memories is watching Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure on VHS, taped off the TV, and I was obsessed with it. I’m still obsessed with it!” It wasn’t the story that drew Peter in, though. It was the sound. When Peter was a child, he learned to play piano and sax, but it was the electric guitar that got him hooked on music. He said, “My folks got me an electric guitar when I was, I think, 11 or 12, and my world just exploded. Like, even just plugging this thing in and touching the strings sounded AMAZING. I instantly felt… I guess, finally connected to that Bill and Ted world.”
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019, and as a tribute ACY and his pal, Danny Madigan, recorded a cover of a classic from the soundtrack, “In Time.” Peter said, “Like, that track STARTS with a guitar solo. You don’t see enough of that.” Playing the solo was a more meaningful experience than wailing on the guitar. He said, “I don’t mind telling you, I wept literal massive tears recording the guitar solo.”
ACY’s eclectic sound is deeply rooted in his parents’ influence. Between his parents, he was surrounded by painting, writing, cooking, photography, and, of course, music. Peter told me his parents encouraged him to listen and play music, and there were always instruments around the house, including a harp and piano. They got him hooked on music, and still to this day he and his parents share music. He said, “It’s very much a two-way street. My dad gave me this kickass Blind Willie McTell record a few weeks ago and it’s got me going on this big blues odyssey, and I love getting him albums, or sending my mum chill ambient meditative tracks. They’re a massive part of my world, musically and non-musically. And to be honest those lines are delightfully blurry as, for me, music permeates EVERYTHING.”
Peter doesn’t just play music. He lives it. On National Album Day in 2021, he hosted a segment for The Culture Cafe on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sounds about the meaningful experience listening to albums can be. While listening to the show, I was struck by a conversation Peter had with a gentleman who worked at a record store. He described a scenario when an older individual brought their record collection to the store to sell, and by flipping through those records, you gain a window into the story of their life. ACY’s music is a part of that story for a lot of folks these days.
Peter’s endeavors are as eclectic as ACY’s sound. He said, “I’ve never, ever been the sort of person to do ‘just one thing’, especially career wise. I’ve produced radio programs, sold fruit and vegetables, been a photo lab technician, worked in comic shops, made art documentaries, written for tons of publications, and, of course, music – Alpha Chrome Yayo and otherwise…I’ve done basically all of these things at the same time and/or as a full-time gig at some point or another. And, frankly, that’s the way I like it!”
Peter deeply appreciates the people who support ACY. He said, “It is never anything less than a pleasure and an honor, and I treasure the people who make it so I can do this. You’re the best!”
It's Just Me
There’s a bit of mysticism to the name ‘Alpha Chrome Yayo,’ and it has a surprising origin. When Peter first started the ACY project, he was making more synthwave leaning music and play on 80s movies, actors, and so forth were popular artist names, and so he was thinking a pun along those lines would make for a good name. He wanted to play on the Italian luxury car brand Alfa Romeo, and so ‘Alpha Chrome Yayo’ was born. Although Peter describes the name as a pun that didn’t land, perhaps missing its mark was a twist of fate because it does seem to embody the far out, exotic and eclectic spirit of the ACY sound. Besides, “It rolls off the tongue nicely.”
Is Alpha Chrome Yayo a character? Peter answered, “Alpha Chrome Yayo is definitely not a character, and I am definitely Alpha Chrome Yayo. Sure, I play to the camera or crowd or whatever, but that’s what performance is. I might be on an album crooning over some cocktail jazz like a Tokyo lounge lothario, glasses clinking in the background, when in reality I’m in my home studio… but it’s still ME. It’s still my thoughts, my music, these pictures I want to paint and worlds I want to live in with cool people for a while. Shit, maybe it’s still not that far removed from scoring those Dungeons & Dragons games, eh?”
When Peter started the ACY project, there was a bit of mystery to the man behind the music. Those who follow ACY on Twitter might be surprised Peter hesitated to show his face. Over time, however, he began to gradually inject more of himself into the music, into the performance, and that’s when it became more than the music and ultimately more rewarding.
When I initially connected with ACY to write this story, I sought to learn about the ACY “project.” I quickly learned ACY is not a project at all. It started as a project and, sure, it has changed over its three-year history, but it also changed Peter. He said, “These days, Alpha Chrome Yayo isn’t a project as such, it’s just me.”
Evolving and Diverse Discography
Peter told me his mum recently reached out to him to congratulate him on the recent three-year anniversary of ACY who in this short period of time has already produced an impressively large and diverse discography. The ACY sound has certainly evolved since its inception. Some of ACY’s early releases, such as Malediction Boulevard, have a strong synthwave character, built around devilish lead synth melodies and shredding guitar licks, whereas later releases, such as Sunset Heat, play like jazz set up shop in ACY’s heart long ago. Sunset Heat was inspired by the night heating up in the city after the sun goes down and contains loads of smooth piano bar melodies, thumping bass lines, horns, fluttering percussion, and elicits a lovely feeling of intoxication. For example, on “Street Scraper” you’ll hear a funky bass line that is warm, hollow, and deep which relentlessly wallops as the lead keyboard and guitar melodies resist fusion, dueling, each fighting for their own liberation.
The ACY sound is uncategorizable and releases unpredictable. And Peter likes it that way. He said, “I have no real interest in adhering to genre conventions, ever.” However, there’s something strikingly familiar about the ACY sound that permeates all his releases. For instance, you’re just as likely to hear lead jazzy keyboard melodies or unraveling lead guitar buried on songs that are hard and crunchy as you are on those that are dripping in dreaminess or infected with the funky groove. There’s a strong sentiment that Peter’s spirit is directly connected to his fingertips and, so, while ACY’s discography is quite diverse, the essence of his sound plays through.
Some of ACY’s albums are playful, some dark, and others contemplative. ACY takes seriously whatever avenue he meanders down, much like Frank Zappa who might do devil jazz one minute and funky smut the next. Peter gets completely obsessed with the concept he’s building an album around, whole-heartedly stepping into it to bring it to life. He goes down the rabbit hole, so let’s follow him down there and see what we find.
Down the Rabbit Hole We Go
ACY is a worldbuilder, and an imaginative one at that. He fully leans into the ridiculously playful in lyricism to bring a concept to life on an album, but the deep cut instrumentals work equally hard to string the concept through. You’re likely to hear rapping about bath salts alongside smooth jazz fit for soaking in a tub, champaign in hand, surrounded by ferns. It’s a dynamite combination.
Soaking
Peter is known to drop a surprise album from time-to-time, and Soaking is one of those, a concept album about one of life’s simple pleasures – bathing. The lyricism spans topics ranging from self-pampering on “Funky Bath,” cleaning a dirty tub in the garden on “Second Hand Hot Tub,” farting in the steam room on “Das Badhaus,” to the unfortunate event of a stranger catching your foamy naked ass on “Bubble Butt.” What is perhaps most remarkable on Soaking is ACY delivers playful lyrics through rap, busting catchy rhymes alongside head-bobbing funk, gangster melodies, and big, thumping beats. The instrumentals carry the day spa atmosphere through, such as “Ferns and Steam” and “La Porte D’Argent,” the latter named after a fabulous day spa in an episode of one of Peter’s favorite sitcoms, Fraiser.
Peter is always eager to bring other people into the mix when creating, some real, some not. “Bubble Butt” was his wife’s idea, for instance, and the elegant cover art was done by 空YAMAHA. He has other team members playing, too. “Robots Need Relaxation Too,” a clever song about a robot, made of metal, soaking in a tub of oil, features a female robot voice built from text-to-speech software, re-constructed by Peter to be part of the music. The robot voices Peter has created have their own names – such as Sophie – and appear on different albums, sometimes singing about a “weird horror vignette” and sometimes a “strange sexy kitchen.”
Page Me
Page Me is sexy, romantic, comical, and raunchy, especially on the saucy title track, “The Fire (Is Roaring),” and “Insatiable.” Page Me is also chocked full of deep cuts built around jazzy bass lines, piano, and lead keyboard and guitar that meanderer through time with an improvisational character, such as on “Cherries in the Garden” or “Excellent Night.” Listeners can indulge in late night jazz piano on “Hitto!” and a dazed, disoriented, and drunken state on “Monsoon.” The diversity of the soundscape on Page Me is remarkable, closing with a dreamy, light, and meditative atmosphere on “Blueberry Pancakes” that plays like syrup slowly drizzlingly out a bottle onto a hot pancake. Many ACY releases have exclusive Bandcamp bonuses, and Page Me comes with a bonus drinks and conversation by the fire with ACY.
19th Hole
19th Hole is an entertaining concept album written about the absurdity of golf club culture. Peter sat down for a conversation on Synth and Brews hosted by fellow independent musician Starfarer where he described the origins of the album. Peter said he knows nothing about golf, but the local club happens to be the closest place to have a few drinks with his friends. The title of the songs on 19th Hole were all written down one evening while Peter sat at the club waiting for his friends to arrive. The songs, developed thereafter, have plenty of sexual undertones and feature their share of characters wearing V-neck sweaters around the shoulders.
The album opens with “Tee Off” which plays like the “press play” screen on a golf video game, and what follows are hard driving puns and spicy clubhouse lust on “Sweater Round the Shoulders (And One for the Waist),” dangerously ambitious solos on “And That, My Friends, Is What I Call Golf,” and puzzled melodies capturing the perplexed golfer who wonders “Where the HELL is that Caddie?”
19th Hole has buckets of deep cuts that bring the golf club to life. Atmospheric synth and organic lead keyboard melodies dance across the green, gliding slowly to the hole on “Bitchin’ Putt,” layers of lead keyboard melodies play like a light dream about a fresh bucket of balls to hit out on the range on “Oh, Balls!,” not to mention salient daydreaming about the fresh air out on the green under the warm sun on “The Smell of the Green” and the bliss of playing one more hole on “The 19th Hole.”
Let's Get Cookin' With Alpha Chrome Yayo
It’s no secret Peter finds joy and solace in cooking. ACY’s Twitter feed routinely showcases irresistible images of Bolognese, pumpkin pie, smoked chicken, pancakes topped with fresh fruit, and much more. Peter has enjoyed cooking from as long as he can remember, which is his mum’s influence on him, of whom he described as an “amazing chef who continues to give him excellent kitchen advice.” Peter cultivated his culinary skills through practice. He said, “Cooking is the same as anything really, practice! And, thankfully, it’s a brilliant thing to practice ‘cos you get to eat a nice meal at the end of it.”
Peter told me, “Life is good when you lean into the ridiculousness. Each meal is an event, a time, and a place. When it’s cheeseburger night, turn on the 50s rock n’ roll, or slip on some sultry jazz and make a romantic dinner.” On Let’s Get Cookin’, he leaned in big.
The recipes on Let’s Get Cooking are like ACY’s jazz, with some room to explore and improvise with measurements and timing. The delicious song titles are named after the recipes with a sound to fit the mood of the dish, such as “Tacos De Pescado,” with a dreamy atmosphere and casual melody that plays like strolling on the beach along with deep bass for sinking your toes into the sand, “Taramisu,” with a delightful keyboard melody and wailing lead guitar for digging in and indulging, and a “Vodka Martini”, which feels smooth and cold yet deep and warm, much like sipping an after dinner cocktail by a fire. The recipes note not to worry too much because it’s going to be great. Now, that’ll give you confidence in the kitchen.
Let’s Get Cookin’ is dedicated to Peter’s family, and cooking for friends and family to enjoy is something that warms his heart. Peter said, “There’s just nothing in the world like a group of loved ones sitting round a table, great food and drinks flowing, tons of laughter, loads of music. And I fully believe that the positive effects of the occasional massive treat meal with plenty of wine and, screw it, actual love between the people enjoying it, they definitely outweigh the negatives.” He added, “As long as you don’t take the piss, everything in moderation and all that.”
Dark Side
Peter is inspired by the prospect of creating endless styles of music, which is what excites him as a musician and a human being. It’s important to him to treat all the styles he creates with equal seriousness. He said, “For me that applies whether I’m writing a song about being murdered and stuffed in a warehouse meat freezer, or an ambient love letter to airport lounges, or a song about carnal knowledge in a country club.”
ACY has his share of dark albums that tap into the disturbed in his discography. Peter said, “I think I’d be doing both myself and lovely people who enjoy my music a disservice if I didn’t do albums that were sometimes a lot darker alongside more introspective releases, or flat-out ridiculous ones.” He added, “Humans are vastly complicated creatures, especially mentally. We all experience a huge array of emotions, why not explore them all?”
Choke
Art has always had an important role in casting light on the darker side of the human experience, society, history, mentality, and more, and many listeners are drawn to sounds, stories, and experiences that tap into the darker side of the spectrum. Choke is one ACY album that is dark in spirit, capturing feeling of tragedy, psychosis, delusion, fear, among others.
The imagery Choke provokes is quite striking. “Snuff ‘em Out,” for example, plays like cracking the door and peeking into the toy maker’s cabinet. You’re small, and everything is large, and then you dance through your dreams with giant sized gears spinning and color changing floors, all the while skipping frames of the film.
Melodies on Choke play like white paint splattered on black canvas, some nightmarish, such as on “Meat Ribbons,” others warped, such as on “The Sun Has Been Dead for 27 hours (and counting).” The song titles on Choke stimulate imagination, such as a butcher heading to work before dawn, donning a bloodied apron with cleaver in hand on “4am in a Warehouse Freezer,” or tell stories, such as a daunting feeling of regret after turning down the wrong alleyway on “You Got The Money?”
Sometimes, Choke brings transient feelings to awareness, such as collapsing into a dream, consciousness wavering between nightmare and fairytale on “Facilis Descensus Averno,” and at other times, Choke wallows in psychological states, such as desolation on “Veins.” Choke is an engaging, energy consuming album, yet it closes peacefully and ceremoniously with “Digital Ritual,” which plays like looping through zeros and ones of mental circuitry.
Dead Air
ACY plays by no rules. He’s fearless. After releasing an album for quiet reflection and contemplation, he released a beast called Dead Air, which is brimming with grim vocal melodies that bruise their way through thick layers of staticky, fuzzy, and gritting textures.
Dead Air plays like a wash boarding of your brain by a madman at the piano playing dinner music on a cruise ship sailing through waves of white noise on an old tube television. The album showcases an impressive range of sounds, from a lullaby playing in an old and haunted farmhouse on “Shards,” a reverberating tunnel that’s about to collapse on “Bunker 47,” and battering, dragging, and pleading on songs such as “Bloodthirsty Little Imp,” “Black Noise,” and “The Black Broadcast.”
Dead Air has soft moments, too, such as the dreamy rendition of “Liebesträume No. 3 (Gut Machine).” But soon you realize you’ve been lured into surgery with no anesthesia. Dead Air feels like a warped fun house built by the insane. And when it’s over, you’re insane, too. So, come on in. You’ll never be the same.
Contemplative Albums
People often approach their music selection in a top-down fashion. When feeling unsure, psychologically tense, or simply alone, before dawn waiting for the sun to light up the sky, I turn to Open House and Skylight Sessions for contemplation, self-reflection, and recentering. While their soundscape may be otherworldly, purposeful listening to them is grounding.
Open House
Open House is one of those surprise albums ACY occasionally drops. It’s an ambient, downtempo lo-fi meditative experience that was written for quiet reflection. When Open House hit the scene, it was well received, in part, because it’s an exceptional musical compilation and, in part, we human beings can use a bit of help to dampen down the endlessly wakeful pieces of our minds.
The sounds, melodies, and songwriting on Open House are powerful movers of mind, body, and soul. The album is a key to the door inside where the emotion has been kept. The opening notes turn the key and open the door, inviting you into a space where subconscious barriers are broken down piece by piece, emotion can flow without judgement, and one can have a peaceful moment free of themselves.
The cover art has a fashionable mid-century look, and the back cover art features a lovely painting of Peter’s dog, Jojo, who he and his wife adopted with the name and is a well-loved member of their family. Peter’s wife did the painting. You can follow her on Instagram here to see her emotionally invigorating art.
Skylight Sessions
Skylight Sessions immerses you in arrangements that resemble a well-orchestrated ocean of fractals, one wave nested within the next, all folding and unfolding over time. The album opens with “Kristdala,” which, upon its first notes, instantaneously holds out its hand offering a fresh mindset, embedded in nature where notes plucked from the sky tip and tap across open spaces.
A noticeable quality on Skylight Sessions is the mutually supportive roles gentle percussion provide for dreamy melodies, such as on “Prognosticator (Argrophrax Theme)” on which warm tribal percussion provide a base for a free-flowing flute to dance across the top or “Tomb Dive” where flutes and dreamy melodies create such a fragile atmosphere, they must be supported by the pitter patter of the percussion to prevent collapse.
The songwriting on Skylight Sessions is adventurous. On “Broken Sleep of the Clockmaker,” for example, the listener is transported to a place of wonder via warm atmospheric synths and the winding of the clock in the background, alongside melodies that bend sounds through time and gentle digital beats elicit a feeling of curiosity and discovery. On “Nebular Shroud” the songwriting elicits supernatural feelings and imagery of being suspended through intergalactic spaces, and on “Merrythought” there is great emotion, such as a stroll through a piano solo that span cheer, gut-wrenching nostalgia, and serenity. Each song on Skylight Sessions invites the listener to explore and wander new spaces only to return to the safety of the familiar core that strings the songs together.
Complete Listening Experience
ACY’s discography is a showcase of concept albums. Spectral Hands is a complete listening experience worthy of sitting down with and indulging in. The album is self-described as one of ghosts – some friendly, some not – and a journey through the spirt world from the ancient forests through all time. Peter was inspired to write the album after seeing the cover art by Benjamin Filby and only later were the songs developed, each inspired by their own folklore.
Each song comes with its own artwork and liner notes, which tell the inspiration for each song. For example, “These Bones” was inspired by a possessed man digging in the mud of the graveyard under the moonlight, and “Tulpa Jack” was inspired by the notion an object can be willed – the Tulpa – into existence through thought. The song is written from the perspective of the Tulpa being willed into existence, an interesting twist on the lore.
Peter often releases albums with extra content, such as liner notes, alternate covers, or a cookbook. Peter said, “It’s all about world building for me, and the music is definitely the most important ingredient, but it’s not the only one. Who wants an unseasoned steak, eh?” The sound, art, and stories told on Spectral Hands are classic and vintage, and reading the liner notes along with the album greatly enriches the listening experience.
The folklore inspiring each song and soundscape on Spectral Hands fit together like hand in glove. “Genji Waterfall” sorrowfully whispers, yet there’s a meditative and reflective quality, telling the story of a princess who accidentally stabbed her mother to death, throwing herself into a waterfall to fall to her death, and according to the lore, her wailing can still be heard. “The Haunting of Frod River” was inspired by an Icelandic legend of ghouls outstaying their welcome in the village, and the song elicits a sense of wind blowing through the cracks in the walls in an old cabin, dancing with ghosts through the night, and although the cool wind howls, there’s a noticeable warmth to the sound. “Blood and Bracken” was inspired by the idea of a joyful afterlife with ghosts and fairies living in a metaphysical forest. The song is quite ominous, conveyed via sounds of flutes, horns, and strings. The listener hears someone out of breath, gasping for air while being chased through the woods by something that cannot be seen in the dark, alongside a lead melody that has a playful quality, offering a dose of psychosis to the mood.
Spectral Hands closes with “The Piano at the End of the World” which was inspired by a vision of a piano playing alone, and the sound elicits this exact feeling. The sound is somber, and notes of the piano pierce your consciousness, slowly fading into open and empty spaces with no beginning or end. There is loneliness, a desire to connect but inability to do so.
The Bandcamp version of Spectral Hands comes with an exclusive bonus called “Sakura Sakura,” with a dark atmosphere that elicits a feeling of slipping into a hypnotic state.
Peter is one and the same with Alpha Chrome Yayo. He breathes fresh air into the world through creation of endless musical styles and support for the community of which he is a part. What will he do next? Your guess is as good as mine. While we wait to find out, let’s get cookin’, pour a drink, and enjoy a relaxing soak in the tub.