Seoul’s Closet Yi is at a crossroads. On the one hand, she’s been courted by the upper echelons of dance music — with releases on Peggy Gou’s label and mixes for Bicep. On the other, her original productions — whether it’s freaky techno or Baltimore club — are too strange for the festival masses. She keeps things weird on ‘Cloudborne 888’, where tracks are filled with impressionistic synth work that fade in and out of focus over down-and-dirty drum & bass. Take ‘Erhigh’ — a tune that starts with sharp and nasty drum programming and bass wobbles (call it ‘post-dubstep dubstep’) before a faint whisper of a melody takes shape on the horizon. A perfect blend of tough and tender.
