Yu Su — Roll With the Punches

Roll With the Punches is a pleasing cocktail of the arcane and modern. Melodies plucked on traditional instruments balance atop odd, synthesised shopping-trolley clatters. The foundations of its songs lie in live jams, which gives the whole EP a spontaneous and exciting energy.

The EP owes its name to Yu Su's own informal translation of a passage from the Tao Te Ching ('泉出通川为谷'); and in its improvisatory nature, we can hear a channelling of Tao, a sense of music writing itself, with the musicians' hands the instrument.

'Tipu's Tiger' is a wonderful example of this. It's a restless track, which seems to have perpetual forward movement. (Or perhaps the effortless downward movement of water; as a wave-like hiss sneaks in and out for the second half of the track.)

And while 'The Ultimate Which Manages the World' has a title which would hint at more of the same, it proves to be an altogether different beast. It's, inexplicably, a dub track, with a very pleasing 90s chillout vibe. Only because Roll With the Punches is so expertly judged does this track not send the whole thing off course, tumbling into the bushes somewhere.

A more literal translation of '泉出通川为谷' is 'the spring flows over the plains, and the valley is born'. The valley, and not just in a Freudian sense, represents the feminine yin. The rock has been carved away by currents, and replaced with negative space. It's at once a thing, and a non-thing. Because a valley is defined by absence, and by emptiness.

Roll With the Punches feels like a little memorialised breath of yin; understated, unsurprising, unassuming; passive. It doesn't force anything. But it's there, and you feel it — even when you don't realise.

Roll With the Punches is available for streaming and purchase here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe

II nøthing II — higeki

The ungenerous among us would describe higeki as background music. And on paper, that's exactly what it is. Narcotic, downtempo beats lift spectral horn samples into life. Delicate, modal keyboard phrases sing from the back of the room. There's a sleepy easiness to it all.

But it's deceptively melodic and full of rich textures. The sheer craft and attention to detail makes you lean in; savour every second. That's what keeps you up. Figuring how washes of funk, vaportrap and trip-hop intertwine into a seamless whole.

And what a whole it is — this is a hauntological treat. Vaporwave which recalls the mysticism, melancholy, and wonder of Boards of Canada — not the arch jokiness that keeps outsiders standing in the rain. Listen to the echoes of Photek's 'Rings Around Saturn' in the weightless opener '疼痛'. There is a sincere artistic ambition here, often lacking in a movement which can fall foul of its own cynicism.

Wonderful ephemerality disintegrates this trio of tracks even as you listen. The dream upon waking, the hand curled around smoke. This music is substantial and insubstantial all at once. Like a daydream it's come and gone; it conjures itself from nothing, and on ending vanishes somewhere you cannot follow.

Like receiving a garbled fax from Boards of Canada, Black Moth Super Rainbow and Oneohtrix Point Never. Available to stream and purchase here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe