On 2022’s Topical Dancer, manufacturer Bolis Pupul and widespread collaborator Charlotte Adigéry tested xenophobia and misogyny by means of transmuting them into discursive electro pop with a cheeky humorousness. On his debut solo album, the Belgian-born manufacturer takes a extra private flip. Pupul misplaced his mom, Yu Wei Wun, in 2008, a demise that formed his lifestyles from that day on. But it’s one he says he couldn’t clutch absolutely till just about a decade later, when he first traveled to his mom’s local Hong Kong. There, he came upon a connection to his roots that diasporic other people continuously really feel upon visiting a familial native land, forming an elemental bond even with out an ancestor to steer him. The life-changing enjoy informs Letter to Yu, a shapeshifting ode to each his mom and Hong Kong that darts between sawtoothed membership songs and extra languid comedowns. Pupul’s song is directly contemplative and exuberant, transferring with a rhythm very similar to navigating the teeming crowds of a brand new town.
Whilst Pupul used to be making journeys to Hong Kong, visiting landmarks just like the bustling Ma Tau Wai Street or traversing town subway, he recorded on a daily basis, even supposing simply taking pictures snippets of discovered sound. The ones recordings give Letter to Yu a definite sense of position, just like the din of a teach platform that classes during the background of “Utterly Part.” Over a tugging synth melody, Pupul grapples with the language barrier that deepens the break up in his identification: “Other folks communicate to me like I’m an area/A way of disgrace is my section,” he sings in a halting melody; “I want I spoke what they discuss/So I may mix in simply.” Lots of Letter to Yu’s perfect songs dip into that considering check in—just like the brooding, hypnotic name observe, on which Pupul pitch-shifts his voice down as he reads a letter to his mom. “That is the place you had been born 59 years in the past/And I’m in spite of everything right here,” he intones as chimes echo round him. “Why did it take me goodbye?”
Pupul’s productions change between pensive moments and out-and-out floor-fillers. Letter to Yu’s maximum energized songs recall his limber manufacturing on Topical Dancer whilst ratcheting up the depth: The martial stomp of “Physician Says” builds to a jagged synth freakout, whilst the turbo-charged “Kowloon” folds droning keys right into a sauntering drum beat for a madcap French rave-up. It’s a contemporary and invigorating tackle electro pop, twisting and buckling into other shapes with every unexpected beat transfer. Pupul places his foot at the gasoline at the bracing standout “Highly spiced Crab,” the place crinkled synths clamor for consideration over a dizzying spiral of electro riffs; its kaleidoscopic climax is likely one of the album’s prime issues.
