Fever by Y Bülbül

This is Pingipung 072.

When Yiğit Bülbül knocked on our door and put his debut album on the table, "Fever" took our hearts in a storm. The Turkish born, London based musician and producer knows how to craft his own contemporary avant-garde pop projections with a rich musical heritage shining through from the 1980s and 90s. His style erupts into silly, absurd moments of synth blurts, percussive extravaganza and psyched horns, it’s always colourful and trippy, but in a light way. It’s exactly what we want to release in a year of distress.

The album is framed by two contemplative tracks, which are reminiscent of Holger Czukay’s oeuvre. The saxophone in the opening track "The Heath" undulates like an introvert leading voice in a meditation. The long and meticulously crafted ambient outro "Txalaparta" features a spoken word sample by the Basque folk musician Txomin Artola from 1978. The four tracks at the heart of the album are beat driven, percussion-heavy, loaded with synths and random horn samples. "Alo?" sounds like Snakefinger tries to get on a Skype call with Serge Gainsbourg. "Cacti All Over My Head" could well be a Ween instrumental with long arching synth lines over a slowed down bossa nova beat.

"Fever" is a frivolous album which bursts with exalted charm and guest musicians. This is not another greetings-from-the-lockdown album, but with the obvious reference in the title it’s almost a tongue-in-cheek name about creative obsessions of our times.
It's the debut album by the multi-instrumentalist Y Bülbül who has learned his trade working with various interesting artists and bands in London in the past 10 years. He is also a passionate crate digger and DJ. His own radio show is unerringly titled "Bülbül's Gemüsement Park", which airs on Netil Radio, a community broadcasting station in Hackney.

Bonus fact, Bülbül is the Turkish name for a brown-eared passerine bird, one that's into singing.

Tracklist

1.	The Heath	4:50

2.	Mulhouse	5:30

3.	Go Goose Go	5:59

4.	Cacti All Over My Head	3:08

5.	Alo?	5:25

6.	Txalaparta	10:15

Videos

Credits

released November 6, 2020

Yiğit Bülbül - Beats & percussion, synths, guitars, bass, trumpet, sampling & vibes
Sinan Tınar - Synth solo on ‘Mulhouse’, nostalgic sampling & percussion on ‘Alo?’, random arpeggios on ‘Txalaparta’
Mikel Acosta Iraundegui - Synths on ‘Mulhouse’ and ‘Alo?’
Michael Francis Tomlinson - Saxophones on ‘The Heath’
Zeynep Naz Günsal - Words on ‘Go Goose Go’
All tracks written, recorded and produced by Yiğit Bülbül except ‘Alo?’ co-written by Mikel Acosta Iraundegui.
Sample on ‘Txalaparta’ taken from Txomin Artola’s album ‘Ttakun Ttakun’, released in 1978.

Mixed by Yiğit Bülbül
Mastered by Doug “hot dog” Shearer
Cover Photography by Sophie Lauren Faulkes
Inspiration & Background Photography by Pablo Boyero
Artwork & Graphic Design by Axis Mundi (Ventral is Golden & Dima Rabik)

This album was recorded in London between 2017 and 2020 and finalised during lockdown Spring/Summer 2020.
Heartfelt thanks to my family, collaborators, all my friends and loved ones.

Pingipung 072
© & ℗ 2020 Pingipung

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