Like its namesake, Yu Su’s Yellow River Blue cuts a wide, meandering path, taking in a gratifying variety of scenery along the way: murky ambient dub, starry-eyed synth fantasias, and even the low-key boogie of the Peoples Potential Unlimited label (which put out one of the Kaifeng-born, Vancouver-based musician’s earliest records back in 2017). “Xiu,” the album’s opening song, feels a world away from the record’s most placid moments. Bounding ahead on a swift, insistent groove, it’s cheery and upbeat; Yu Su’s sing-song vocal melody floats airily over bass and drums with a distinctly ’80s new-wave flavor. Like most of Yu Su’s music, the song refuses to settle for any one mode, and it simultaneously channels springtime picnics beneath pink cherry blossoms as well as shoulder-to-shoulder house parties on sagging floorboards. For all its celebratory energy, there’s something introverted about the song, too; the crisp beat periodically disappears inside a swirl of dub delay, and staccato synths smear into a rainbow haze. It evokes a sensation familiar to runners and clubbers alike: The heart races yet the mind is at peace.