The ‘Mount Elephant’ journey flutters into being with ‘Moon Needs The Wolf’; acoustic guitar, flute and voice immediately transporting you to a different plane of existence; a near 8 minute glide through varied textures and sounds that, like the rest of the album, never stays in one place for too long. The gentle intro morphs into plaintive eastern faraway vibes and then shifts to an insistent bass and drum section that ups the tempo and adds more guitars before dropping back to bass and bongos and heading off into yet another direction…anything goes here and you just have to drop preconceptions and go with it.
‘Thimpu’ to me sounds like a dreamy hymn to fertility gods of old, ancient and playful, a slowly building dervish dance. And then ‘Fil Dagi’; a hypnotic fireside chat with Lucifer, seductive and mystical and somehow knowing .
But those are just my interpretations and I don’t suppose for a second they reflect anyone else’s which is the beauty of the album. Some music leads you to a certain feeling or imposes its own mood and meaning; Upupayáma seem to give you the textures and sounds to work with and then let you get on with it.
For that reason there seems little point describing each track; suffice to say the whole trip is fertile global psychedelia, rich and intoxicating with a folky, rustic and mystical feel, blending many different instruments (including flutes…I do love a flute!) and employing multiple shifts and jumps in timing and pace. If that makes you think over-serious muso noodlings don’t fear; there’s a mischievous and devilish lightness which sits strangely and fittingly with the rich tones and exotic sounds.
There are voices (for some reason ‘vocals’ doesn’t feel quite right) scattered throughout but just as with the first 2 Upupayáma albums (the self-titled debut and ‘The Golden Pond’, both on Cardinal Fuzz records) I have no idea what is being said or what it means and I haven’t really tried to work it out…it is another texture and an instrument in its own right. Upupayama is Alessio Ferrari who plays and records everything himself but live has a full band that naturally comes across in a different way to the recorded work. Having witnessed them on stage at this years Fuzz Club festival in Eindhoven I’m definitely looking forward to them hopefully hitting the UK at some point in 2025.
‘Mount Elephant’ is a musical guide to a trip through your own imagination; a surreal fantasy world where the meanings are yours. One to immerse and lose yourself in…
Available soon from Fuzz Club records
Gary Powell
September 2024
