Into Rapture by Yuu Udagawa

Japanese producer Yuu Udagawa steps up on Cosmocities Records with six tracks oozing pure late hours' delight and sci-fi-indebted sensualism.

Photo by Silva Arturo

Having made a name for herself through exquisitely groovy releases for the likes of Compost Records and Cyphon, Yuu returns with a choice package of vibey, dreamy joints featuring remixes from InFiné alum and Carl Craig collaborator Francesco Tristano, as well as British jazz-house legend, Atjazz.

Kicking off the release, the aptly-titled "Into Rapture" works out a fine balance of pixelated funkiness and sample-heavy collagism. Clad in a lattice of hedonistically laid-back vox, raucous bass stabs, and iridescent synth slivers, it moves up and down like the smoothest rollercoaster, from up vaporous heights down fleshly voluptuousness in a jiffy. A more Detroit house-minded affair, "We Become" is a jagged pumper of the finest ilk, with its stealth bass onslaughts and hi-intensity churn kitted up for extended dance floor use. Trusted to Francesco Tristano, the track morphs entirely under his touch, hatching into an elegantly minimal piece of reshuffled piano house, minutely delayed and processed to the most hypnotic effect.

Flip sides and here's "Flows Forever" moving back to Udagawa's trademark mix of zero-G disco and otherworldly escapology. Ushering us down the path of heavy-lidded, oneiric boogie, she puts on a riveting show of skillful maneuvers and chiselled ambience-scaping. Delving deeper into deep house folds, "Radiance" is the epitome of a cinematic cut, blurring the lines between poetic immersion and sonic tableaux as brittle as they are eerie. Reconfiguring it for the club entirely, Atjazz harnesses the original's soulful stasis and sets it in motion through a finely orchestrated polyphony of elements: reverb-drenched vocals surfacing from a tide of rolling arpeggios, layered interplays, skidding drumwork, and haunting, ghostly echoes.

Yuu Udagawa - Into Rapture
Release Date February 2025
Label Cosmocities Records

Tracklist
1. Yuu Udagawa - Into Rapture
2. Yuu Udagawa - We Become
3. Yuu Udagawa - We Become (Francesco Tristano Pianowave Remix)
4. Yuu Udagawa - Flows Forever
5. Yuu Udagawa - Radiance
6. Yuu Udagawa - Radiance (Atjazz Floor Dub)