Fact Mix 799: Yu Su

A journey through misty dancefloor psychedelia and international club sounds.

Yu Su makes the kind of music that is capable of transporting the listener to unimagined places. Born in Kaifeng, China, and based in Vancouver, Yu Su’s music draws from house, dub, jazz and the sounds of her native country to create downtempo oddities and slow-burning club tracks that transcend time and place.

Last month, following an acclaimed run of releases for labels such as People’s Potential Unlimited, Wichelrode and Music From Memory’s Second Circle imprint, Yu Su released her debut album, Yellow River Blue. Issued through her freshly launched bié Records label, the album is an homage to her home beside the Yellow River and a “personal musical autobiography, constructed around stories of chasing something inconceivable.”

Yu Su’s new label emerged from her 2019 tour of the country, during which she travelled from Qingdao on the western shore of the Yellow Sea to Xining, an urban centre on the Tibetan Plateau. As well offering a home for her own productions, the imprint will showcase emerging artists and experimental sounds from China.

Yu Su marks the release of Yellow River Blue with a Fact Mix filled with misty dancefloor psychedelia from Copeland & Gast and Patricia Kokett, Peruvian club sounds from Aristidez (remixing Argentinian duo Carisma’s ‘Fracciones’), Anz’s energetic ‘Gary Mission’ and more.

The mix was not an attempt of imagining myself playing music in a club in any way since I don’t have the capacity without being in the particular time and space,” Yu Su says. “It is a collection of dance music of which the sounds has had big influence on me, and some styles of composing and structuring music that I’d like to learn more and hopefully be able to channel them in my own works in the future.”

Yellow River Blue is available now. Find more of Yu Su’s music on Bandcamp.