Yellow River Blue, the debut LP by Yu Su, pays tribute to her homeland of Kaifeng, along the southern banks of the titular tributary. On Xiu, zither strings sing above sparse dubbed percussion, and vocal snippets that expand out into an off-centre whispered song. Its rhythm racing like subtracted, drum and bass. An accelerated “Amen, Brother” reduced to a bare minimum. Kick and hat, beneath, bouncing bleeps. Futuro is slower, tribal, and trippy – full of gated ghosts, dancing to a dub b-line, a big sub punch and sped-up nyabinghi rattle. House and techno echoes run through the beatless Touch-Me-Not. An electric but fluid calm of counterpoint. Like a rush of water molecules, the movement of “The Yellow River”, the Huang He, towards Bohai Sea. Dusty is a whirlpool of layered loops and spinning sources. Klein hammers out an industrial funk. Its sheet metal ringing, iron and steel, aligned with ZamZam`s mutant sounds. The album contains two takes on the track, Melaleuca. The first a mad marimba moment, a homage perhaps to `80s dance. The second, a mellower slice of stylish, art pop. Asian timbres wrapped around a warm whole. Gleam is a piece of muted electro – that could have been conceived with label, Music From Memory’s, recent Virtual Dreams comp in mind. Whizzing around, dodging laser blasts atop a treated break and Earth-shaking bottom-end boom. 

Yellow River Blue will be released as a collaboration between Music From Memory – who will be handling the vinyl – and Yu Su’s co-founded new label bié Records, who`ll be doing the digital.