Discography
Y. Bhekhirst released the "Hot In The Airport" single (above) in 1986. It was re-released in 1991. The song apparently appeared on both sides of the record (so there is no real B-side - note the "A!" on the image above).
The "Hot In The Airport" cassette (I don't know if it's ever been an LP or CD) was also released in 1986 and re-released in 1994. One track listing (there have possibly been others) is:
Since no-one really seems to know how many of these were actually published and sold, maybe "released" is stretching it a bit. It is also arguable whether the records were released in 1986 as the copyright dates suggest - copies didn't seem to turn up until a few years into the 1990s.
The track "Hot In The Airport" was also included on the Interesting Results compilation, released in 2004.
Credits
Unsurprisingly (see the Who page) this is mind-numbingly confusing.
On the A-side of the single:Produced by: Y. Bherhirst
Music by: H. Diazg
Singer: Y. Bhekhirst [rubber-stamped on the label]
HOT IN THE AIRPORT (V5)
(Al Phool)
(C) 1986 Al Pol, (C) 1991 Al Phol
(P) 1991 Al Phool
On the cassette:Only author of this songs, music, lyrics;
player of this music, production, performance: Y. Bhekhirst (H. Diaz)
(C) 1986, 1994 HDG Records, New Hyde Park, New York
Let's just assume that Y. and H. are the same person: otherwise there's the more or less impossible task of working out who did what...
Style
Now for the really hard part. Irwin Chusid's summary suggests that Y. "has a distinctive stylistic identity, and his musical self-assurance is undeniable. His "Only author ... player" claim seems affirmed by the album's uncoordinated "ensemble" performances (guitar, bass, synths, drum machine), which sound like single-artist overdubbing. At times the layering is so out-of-joint that it approaches free jazz, though that doesn't seem to be the artist's intent."
That's not such a bad starting point. Let me add to it by saying that Y. has a very distinct method of making music, which he seems to stick to in virtually every song. Chusid's claim that his songs lack structure is only half true: the structure isn't conventional but it's quite rigid. Y.'s method is to sing a verse (which is in itself very repetitive) two, four, or six times. I wouldn't unequivocally say that he can actually "sing" in the normal way: he seems to be able to pitch, but doesn't really attempt to carry a tune: his method sounds a bit like Lou Reed or Mark E. Smith, for example. Y.'s singing is also notable for its lack of emotion and expression. I don't want to be too euphemistic here: I like his singing but it's not very good.
The lyrics, while simple, are structured in rather complex ways which would seem hard to remember (especially in "I Run My Car" and "Over All"), but Y. almost always repeats them perfectly, suggesting that he's either reading them as he sings, or that he's memorised them accurately. Y. mostly likes to sing about love, dancing, the weather, and transportation: he seems obsessed with transition, whether it's from summer to winter, imprisonment to freedom, or travel from one place to another. The lyrics are an odd mix: cliches, weirdly expressed phrases, and fairly normal sentences which are obsessively repeated over and over or in strange combinations until they sound odd. Y. sounds like a pleasant kind of guy, although perhaps too much wistful nostalgia or dancing or sun or rain has damaged his brain somewhat. A nice, but unlikely, fantasy is that he's a drug-fried ex-Krautrocker.
All the songs include electric bass, guitar, and percussion. The "melody" of the songs, such as it is, is a sequence of a few notes played over and over. In some of the more "normal" songs, the guitar plays what could be vaguely described as a melody (and in "HITA" it sounds like some effects are applied to it, or it's a synthesiser, as Chusid claimed), and the bass a sort of bass line, but in some songs it sounds like Y. barely knows the difference between the two instruments, and is just twanging at random.
Except for "HITA", where various normal-ish drumbeats are used, the percussion seems to consist of a snare drum and a cymbal, played arrhythmically as if to add colour to the music. If it's a drum machine, as Chusid suggests, it's hard to imagine that anyone would program it like that.
So far I've assumed that Y. is overdubbing all the different parts. For "HITA", that's almost certainly true. But the opening to "I Run My Car" seems to suggest very slightly that it may not always have been that way. The guitar and bass player play all the notes or chords they're going to play just before the song starts, which suggests that there are actually at least two people playing, that the music was recorded in one take, that Y. is singing and playing simultaneously, that the melody had been thought up just before, and that the players haven't had any training on the instruments they play, and are just moving their fingers around until they hit upon a sequence that seems acceptable. Of course it might still have been overdubbed, but it's a bit weird.
Jose Hugo Diaz Guzman seems to spend a great deal of time recycling and refining his music. As Y., when he hits upon a sequence he likes, he's happy to re-use it - the basic tune of "I Will Sing" and "Over All" is very similar, with only a few slips that could be mistakes or deliberate attempts to make the songs sound different.
The effect is sometimes impressively minimalist and sometimes incredibly annoying.
Artistic merit
As far as I'm concerned, Y.'s music is genuinely original. The points of comparison that people have pointed out (outsider music, post-punk, Krautrock, free jazz) are sort of beside the point: first, they don't adequately sum up what Y.'s music sounds like; second, it doesn't seem very likely that Y. could have assimilated these influences. More importantly, Y.'s lyrics, while strange, are really quite bland, and only a fraction as idiosyncratic as the music. It seems to me that Y. is either influenced by or aspiring to mainstream pop music, and his work is focused on commercial success rather than anything else. That sounds fairly crazy, I know, but apart from it being a big art hoax, it's the most reasonable explanation as far as I'm concerned. In any case, I think that Y.'s music has a small but valuable place in the canon as a twisted interpretation of pop music.
My fascination with Y.'s music is that it is simultaneously addictive and repugnant. It's proof that music of any style or level of competence can be considered "catchy". It is also phenomenally irritating, almost disturbingly bizarre, and remarkably incompetent.
Listening to Y.
If you haven't heard it before, hopefully you'd now like to try Y. This is now very easy: just go here. Many thanks, of course, should go to WFMU for their constant support of the Bhekhirst phenomenon.
You can also try and find the cassette and single. theorchard.com claim that their affiliates have copies, but no-one seems to. Unfortunately I haven't heard of anyone buying it recently. Places that might help you: CDNow, CD Universe, Amazon, eBay.