YL Hooi / Running Around (83) / Efficient Space

“Running Around (83)” finds Valya Ying-Li Hooi once again working with long-time collaborator, Tarquin Manek, who himself caused quite a stir as Static Cleaner Lost Reward and the recently repressed “Breathing Under Honey”. The new single takes that album’s experimental dub direction, and, if anything, dives even deeper. The main body of the track is an immersive vapour. A slow, slow steady, tech skanking, with rolling bass rumbling and percussion hitting in short, sharp delayed snaps and clicks. Matched with Hooi’s sweet, ethereal, soulful vocal, it makes for a seriously stoned shot of dream pop. A mix by the mighty Mad Professor adds a little light nyabinghi rattle and has the B-line growling, resisting, as sections of it are sucked backwards. The song is stripped back to only brief bursts, snatches that are sometimes, suddenly, locked in loops. Ulla E. Straus then radically re-imagines the track, employing woodwinds and acoustic piano to create a laid-back, lounge jazz ballad.…