- You're Me, Yu Su's collaborative project with Scott Gailey, takes some of the touchstones of the Canadian Riviera scene (dusty drums, heat-struck melodies, heaving low-end) and puts them into a loose framework, conveying the sprawling wilderness of Southwestern British Columbia. The duo's debut album for 1080p, Plant Cell Division, was recorded on the beautiful Salt Spring Island. You're Me, released on cassette by the young label Isla, is a mélange of jam sessions and live recordings that capture what's happened since. The result is a cohesive and all-encompassing showcase of what You're Me can do, blending pastoral rainforest sounds with bursts of energy well suited to the dance floor.
You're Me bottles the vibe of the duo's impressive live performances, where Su and Gailey conjure a world of natural and artificial sound from their laptops. Percussion rattles around the stereo spectrum, implacable sounds bloom and recede in the background, all while the two command waves of bass. Here, that formula manifests in a few ways, from the swampy, Hype Williams-esque groove of "Dream I" to the broken beat crawl of "Fantasy Sentences." Spread across two sides of a tape, the music flows almost continuously, working wonders for a group whose sound might otherwise feel fragmentary. The dub techno swivel on "Location" is all the more effective because it comes after 12 minutes of ambient drift, though it would be impressive on its own.
On the second side of You're Me, there's another moment when the duo unexpectedly pivots into techno, jamming on a quasi-tribal groove flecked with what sound like bits of guitar. Later, the lengthy, multi-part "Vita Nuova" moves from oceanic ambient into dreamy techno with gorgeous pitch-bent melodies.
The pitter-patter sounds in "Dream II" move gently but surely, like ripples in a pond, while the jangly noise in "Radio Game" sound like a rustling forest. Those moments of experimentation are offset by the times when the duo really lock into each other, a sign of experience and practice. This is rugged, unpredictable music that frequently breaks out into moments of bewildering beauty.
Tracklist01. Dream I
02. Dream II
03. Location
04. Radio Game
05. Fantasy Sentences
06. Oracle
07. Vita Nuova