Yaeji
With A Hammer
XL Recordings
On a debut album that was heavily-anticipated by the global electronic scene, Yaejiβs sound manifests as an ocean of ideas, each tide brimming with intriguing influences and provoking artistic choices. The central themes of rage and identity should be accompanied by an appreciation of the album as a beautifully-curated gallery. In here, we are taken on a 43-mins whistle-stop tour around all the jazz (βIβll Remember For Me, Iβll Remember For Youβ), ambient (β1 Thing To Smashβ), industrial techno (βMichinβ) and glitchy electronica that has been experimented with during her career thusΒ far.
On βSubmerge FMβ, Yaeji soothingly declares βweβre all a part of oneβ. She presides over a clash between traditional flutes and a ridiculously catchy house beat, emulating the complications between the roots of music and the technological landscape it evolves within. It perfectly opens the albumβs expression of conflict and change, with vocals quickly becoming more jarring and surrealistic in the ensuing track βFor Grantedβ β part of the songβs maxim of expecting the unexpected. On tracks like βFeverβ and βWith A Hammerβ, she presents resounding poems of self-realisation, now an artist inventively and introspectively critiquing the people we are becoming. Though coherence is sometimes sacrificed to entertain the sheer diversity of sound, Yaeji nevertheless displays the rare ability to represent such a broad expanse of artists and subgenres with the utmost respect and skill β so, perhaps, the gravity of an album format was a necessary fundamental for each songβs success.
ArtistΒ Links
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: YAEJI – WITH A HAMMER
Rohan Chakraborty