{"id":16674,"date":"2026-05-28T14:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=16674"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:04:34","slug":"upupayama-honesty-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/upupayama-honesty-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Upupayama – Honesty Flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes you pick up records thinking you know what you\u2019re going to get and expecting to be in familiar territory\u2026.this one caught me off-guard and most definitely took me to places I didn\u2019t anticipate..Upupayama (essentially Alessio Ferrari who plays all the instruments on the records) have released 3 studio albums and one live set over the last few years and throughout all these releases have created a shifting world of strange beauty. There is certainly continuity here with that ethereal feel still apparent but the sound has taken a twist towards a more direct approach; more powerful and with a lot more swagger \u2013 more \u2018rock\u2019 than previous albums – that\u2019s rock in a reverb-heavy gritty psychedelic 70s soundtrack style.<\/p>\n

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The opening track \u2018Fliiim\/Lalimph\u2019 runs to 11 minutes and is an odyssey in itself; propelled from the start by tribal percussion and bass then an overload of wah-wah guitar effects it leads you through a frenetic tribal dance and then breaks halfway through for a more reflective flute interlude before coalescing again into trippy psychedelic drift and shimmer.<\/p>\n

This feel of an epic journey or unfolding story is also reflected across the length of the whole double album as it ebbs and flows and flickers through different tempos and atmospheres, transcending \u2018normal\u2019 song structures in favour of a rising and falling episodic approach, with the opening 6 tracks overall (slightly) heavier and more frenzied than the rest of the record which feels more rooted in the unique Upupayama world we know from previous records.<\/p>\n

By the time you get to the third track \u2018Mystic Chords Of Memory\u2019 you\u2019re spellbound and in a different world\u2026 a charged voodoo funk wigout with echoes of Agharta\/Pangaea era Miles Davis letting it all go in Japan \u2013 pounding percussion and mystical driving pagan fuzz, sweat soaked and intense and trance inducing.<\/p>\n