Yaeji – „With A Hammer“ (XL Recordings)
“You bring the stress, we clean the mess.” That is the promise of a so-called “rage room” in Virginia Beach. A place where you can destroy various objects without moral worries for a limited time. For example, there is the offer “Tantrum Time”, in which ten glass objects and one electrical device can be smashed with a hammer and/or crowbar within ten minutes. Such “anger rooms” have been quite hip in the past decade and have also been bookable in Germany for a few years. The philosophy behind it: If you can regularly (in a controlled amount) vent your pent-up anger, you are a healthier person. Unexpressed anger can take hold like a psychological ulcer. An emotional weight that can cause a lot of pain and distress over time.
Kathy Yaeji Lee aka Yaeji also knows the weight of unreleased anger. After all, it is the main theme of their debut album “With A Hammer”. In interviews and in press releases, the US-Korean artist speaks of years of pent-up aggression that she wanted and was able to let out in the process of creating these 13 songs. “Aggression” is actually not the first word that comes to mind when listening to their music. The songs so far, whether on the first EPs, various remixes for acts like Robyn, Charli XCX and Dua Lipa or on their 2020 mixtape What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던, have been introspective house tracks. With one foot in the club and the other in the fireplace room. Their beats may push hard, but the vibes are tender. How might a rage album by such an artist sound like?
Break the cycle of violence
First of all, Yaeji gave her hammer a name. His name is Hammer Lee and he adorns both the album cover and the accompanying music videos. Rather than bashing an old microwave with that eponymous tool, Yaeji has found another route to catharsis. Because if you expect furious industrial hammering from “With A Hammer”, you will be disappointed. Their tracks are as playful and delicate as ever. If not even more delicate: “Submerge” opens the LP with flute sounds and dreamy New Age synths. Yaeji’s voice sounds relaxed as usual, an unexcited almost whisper. If the beat drops halfway, it’s comfortable and not pounding. “For Granted” also starts in dream pop mode – and even the breakbeat that sets in later doesn’t sound stressful, but euphoric. Not all of the songs on “With A Hammer” are so lovely — such as the menacingly trip-beat-driven “Fever” or the distorted acid-house chorus of “Michin” — but the musical vibe throughout is forgiving.
It’s not that Yaeji doesn’t have a reason to be angry. The songs on “With A Hammer” came into being at a time of massive political instability, during the Black Lives Matter protests and the rise of racist violence against Asians in 2020. But this album is not a pure protest LP. Yaeyi is instead about the belief that together we can break the cycle of violence. This is reflected on the one hand in the numerous guest appearances by acts from their two home countries, such as the Baltimore producer Nourished By Time or the South Korean singer-songwriter Oh Hyuk. “Isn’t it so weird how we learned to / Pass down what we didn’t want to?” she sings in Done (Let’s Get It). “Isn’t it our mission in this life to / Break the cycles, to mend the cycles?”
And even in the one song that is explicitly about destruction, it’s not a selfish act. “Hand me over what’s been distressing you / I’ll smash it for you,” she sings in “1 Thing To Smash”. The emphasis is on the second line, on cohesion. Incidentally, the psychological benefit of anger spaces and the destruction inherent in them is scientifically controversial. Acting out aggression directly has the potential to make us even more aggressive. Good that Yaeji chooses a different path. She does not blindly surrender to her anger. She wants something else: transformation.
Release date: April 7, 2023
Label: XL Recordings
