Knopha eats 'surprise' for breakfast. The Xiamen-based producer thrives on twist and wit in his ambient yet texturally rich work.
On the latest collaboration track with Yu Su, a rework of Yellow River Blue's opening track "Xiu", Knopha turned the chugging rhythm into a wonkier feeling - by adding soft bass lines and syncopated drums, Knopha lays out a new and winding "railroad track" for Yu Su's vocals and melodies.
“Xiu 宫廷 Version” (royal court) might be a less wild trip comparing to Yu Su's original ride, but it manages to find another path, leading everyone all the way to the palace of imagination, through unseen rockeries, waterworks and pagodas.
credits
released April 22, 2021
Written and recorded by Yu Su and Noah Li in Vancouver, Canada and Xiamen, China.
As an electronic music producer and DJ born in Kaifeng, Henan and now living in Vancouver, Yu Su is brave enough to challenge the Eurocentric thinking prevalent in today's music scene without indulging in any conceptual stereotypes such as "ethnic", "futuristic", and "fourth world". She draws as much inspiration from leftfield dance music and her wandering personal experiences as she does from nature; the genre labels "pop", "experimental" or "ambient" are associated with her, yet neither is accurate. Yu Su's work is always affectionate, soulful, easy on the ear, and the playfulness of the work emerges as the soundscape unfolds.
As a producer, Yu Su has released her work through notable labels such as Ninja Tune and Music From Memory, while her remarkable DJ sets of oddball anthems have swept the world, taking over dancefloors at a lineage of culturally important clubs such as Concrete, //about blank, Nowadays, and Contact, receiving fervent responses at the major global electronic festivals like Dekmantel, OFFSonar, Nuits Sonores, and Mutek.