Fascinator, aka Johnny Mackay, has shared the single ‘Beyoğlu’, a song originally intended for release on his 2018 album ‘Water Sign’.
The blisteringly short, Turkish-inspired track has had a long journey to official release. After it was removed from ‘Water Sign’s final tracklisting, the song was picked up by Orbit Gum for a viral commercial in 2017. In the ad, two kids making out in a bedroom are interrupted by the girl’s father, before their dignity is saved by a stick of the gum.
Now, Mackay has released an official music video, produced by the artist known as FuzzWah. It pieces together pre-coronavirus lockdown footage with analogue video effects. Watch it below:
Mackay told Purple Sneakers the song is named after a district in Istanbul he had spent some time in.
“I was listening to a lot of Turkish psych when I started this track with the bassline but then once I added layer after layer it travelled to a totally different continent. I’d been jamming a lot of Madlib at the time too,” he said.
The song marks the first new music from Mackay under the Fascinator moniker since 2018. However, last year the singer-songwriter released a new single, ‘Aurora’ with his band Children Collide. That song was the first new music from Children Collide in nearly eight years. The band was forced to cancel their planned first headline tour dates since 2014, set for late March, due to the coronavirus pandemic.