Letter to Yu

Released

Producer/singer-songwriter Bolis Pupul’s debut solo album is an inventive, engaging house, electro and synth-pop collection. It’s pleasingly retro in places; when the chorus hook in “Completely Half” hits it feels as though it’s been in your life since it was an early 80s top ten hit, and “Goodnight Mr Yi”’s introductory synth arpeggio has an equally misty-eyed, pre-digital feel, to which Pupul then adds a children’s chorus on a backdrop of rubbery bass, synthetic slivers and robot percussion, creating something that sounds both whimsical and futuristic, which is the mood for much of the album. “Frogs” is a kind of glam-rock-house cross-pollination that performs a neat sleight of hand halfway through by switching to gnarly, acidy electro-house, and is swiftly followed by “Doctor Says” which ups the gnarl factor further: it’s essentially a fat house drum track and an imposing creaking, metallic synth lead that is more of a stretch or an ache than a note or chord. But he contrasts these with twinkling electronic android lullabies like “Spicy Crab” and “Ma Tau Wai  Road” and innocent-sounding synth-pop like “Causeway Bae.” An electronic album that manages to be both edgy and occasionally tender.

Harold Heath

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