Yaeji Credit: Micaiah Carter

I’m a little mesmerized by Yaeji. The New York-based producer and visual artist mixes geometric, house-influenced beats with quiet, reverb-drenched pop hooks, and switches off between singing verses in English and Korean, and the results verge on hypnotic. I was immediately hooked last winter, when a friend played me “Raingurl” off her November 2017 release, EP2 (Godmode). With a chorus beginning “Mother Russia in my cup / and my glasses fogging up,” the lyrics call to mind a sweaty, red Solo-cup-filled college party in someone’s basement, but its relatively bare arrangements make the music feel more like a pregame before a big night out: fun and energetic, but with room to relax. Yaeji’s newest release, “One More,” is less overtly dancey than “Raingurl” but has a similarly casual, friendlike intimacy. With pillowy textures punctuated by drum-machine beats, “One More” achieves dreamy ambience while avoiding the soupiness of shoegaze. Though Yaeji sings softly, the characteristically minimalist composition highlights her lyricism rather than burying it in the mix. “One More” is the first track Yaeji has released since EP2, so hopefully this means there’s more on the way.   v