Chinese-born, Berlin-based Rui Ho has become a fixture in the international post-club community thanks to the larger-than-life, hypnotic electronic sounds she showcases in her mixes and productions. Combining traditional Chinese musical elements with slimy loops, neon-glow gabber fragments, angelic ambient interludes, and various disjointed club beats, her songs make the perfect soundtrack for an out-of-body dancefloor experience. On her latest full-length, the gorgeous Lov3 & L1ght, she draws on those global club influences to create a gloriously seductive cyber-R&B opus of pain, desire, and longing
“You never showed love and you never was kind,” she sings on choppy pop anthem “Right Now.” The song is about a withholding ex-lover who’s suddenly resurfaced—as Ho puts it, they’re both “a little bit vague and a little bit too late”—but Ho gradually transforms it from a moment of weakness to a moment of empowerment. “Fire Walk With Me” is a peak time trance edit, designed to wreak havoc in the club, and “Leave”, her collaboration with Japanese artist Golin, is a slo-mo sci-fi sugar rush à la PC Music. Throughout Lov3 & L1ght, expansive club beats are woven into deceptively simple pop hooks, and wrapped in holographic Autotune armor. It feels like a glowing treatise on the power of technology to both uplift and transform.
