Photo by Guarinox Rodriguez Jr.

Yaeji is a master in the art of electronic introversion in feeling moments in her headspace before turning that energy into matter outside of it. Sometimes they’re her own, and in others, she’s taking everything around her in by osmosis. The early years of the experimental dance producer’s output fell more so under the latter, with her first two EPs blazing the path toward peak pre-TikTok meme-able songcraft in their kinetic spurts. “You know the one time I wrote a banger that goes like / ‘Make it rain girl, make it rain, make it rain girl make it…,’” she reminds us on her latest single “booboo”, before going on to fill in some of the blanks as to why last year’s excellent debut album, With A Hammer, wielded what moved the dial forward toward meditative self-preservation. Yet, “booboo” returns to the floor with a recharged brat energy to fuel the club with molecular beats fast-bouncing from wall to wall. “You know the right amount of space / To spread open your wings wide / Dance and shake your booty / From the left to the right.” Maybe she wasn’t ready to accept the invite to the party before, but after some time to process it all, she’s sounding ready to embrace the good times in full.

Yaeji’s “booboo” single is available now on XL Recordings.