12th best electronic music album of 2024: Bolis Pupul – Letter To Yu

Bolis Pupul: Letter To Yu (Because Music / DEEWEE)

It's that time, dear reader, when I point you towards my interview with Bolis Pupul for Electronic Sound magazine. (The link requires a subscription.) Here are some lazily-lifted bits from that feature...

"On the dual-identity single Completely Half, you can hear the 'doo dit-de doo-dee' sound of his Octopus card being scanned on the Hong Kong subway. The whimsical Goodnight Mr Yi is coloured by the tribal singing of the Dong people of China’s Guizhou Province.

"And in a curious turn of events, Doctor Says features the voice of a man who collared Bolis while he was wandering through Shenzhen." It's like a Michael Palin travel diary, only with more synthesisers, and with support from the guys from Soulwax.

As you can infer from ES waffle, this electronic pop album is very place-centred. The quirky beats and catchy synth lines take us down some imaginative avenues. On Spicy Crab, dedicated to his favourite food, arpeggios sparkle with gleefully optimism. And the frowning Kowloon has the kind of unease that could well get from a famously walled city.

This is also an album about family, in quite a lovely way. But you can read more about that in my Electronic Sound interview. Ever the salesman, me.

This is part of a series, currently live-blogging on 3, 4 & 5 January 2025. Read the posts so far.