As the summer slowly comes to a close, I’m always looking for any way possible to hang on to every bit of sunshine I can. Cue my good pals over at Fuzz Club who have sent me the latest album from Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessio Ferrari, who goes under the moniker Upupayāma. Mount Elephant is album number three and my introduction to his psychedelic sound.
In his promo it says that Ferrari finds inspiration in traditional Bhutanese music, Thai disco and Anatolian psych, by way of lysergic acid-folk, ‘70s Kosmische and stoner-rock. Wow! That’s some melting pot. The man himself added this.
“Mount Elephant was born out of a need to listen. Listening to the silence while observing flowers, while moving your hands in the wind, listening to your body while you are dancing. If in my first album (‘Upupayāma’) I had travelled the length and breadth of a place, in the second (‘The Golden Pond’) I had reached one and stopped there, in this third album I set out again, crossing a border and entering a long-dreamed place that I could finally ‘see with my own eyes’.”
This sounds right up my street so let’s drop the needle and dive in.
The album opens on the expansive ‘Moon Needs The Wolf’. The acoustic folksy opening section took me away to Asia, high in the hills overlooking the temples and forest in the valley below. The choice of percussion early on is primarily responsible for this imagery. The large shaker taps punctuate the acoustic riff and gentle vocals and flute. The addition of sitar only adds to the exotic feel. Around the mid-point the tempo moves up, drums pick up the slack and lush electric guitar comes in to drive the song home. The bass and conga break is outstanding with a squall of feedback returning the guitars to the mix.
Similarly, ‘Thimpu’ which follows, enters slowly, setting up a hypnotic chiming rhythm before the main guitar riff and congas come in. The song slowly blooms into a psyche odyssey with multiple guitar textures being used to transport us to the calm of a Japanese zen garden. The vibes get steadily more frenetic and when that fuzz pedal gets stomped the groove accelerates heavenward. Exceptional guitar work on show throughout!
Lead single ‘Fil Dagi’ takes us back on that journey through the ancient mountains with its lumbering elephant like rhythm. Much more gentile than the previous track it tiptoes around creating an aura of calm. The guitars trade off against each other as they are in conversation with each other. His whispered vocal like some prayer to the gods of old. As a change of pace and mood this track does a great job of resetting our sonic palate for what’s to come.
Up next the lunar goddess has moved on to a new amour in ‘Moon Needs The Owl’. This is proper dancing music or “world psychedelic disco”. Drums are up front and central to set the groove and guitars squawk and squelch as the bass plays this delicious walking riff. On the track Ferrari says “This song is set in a Thai disco in the 70s with all these people smashing things (I recorded myself smashing empty wine bottles), messing around having fun and laughing, then the night gives way to dawn and everyone walks home.”
Like the opener this is also a song of two halves and the second half is a more languid serpentine affair. Flute takes the lead along with a sultry guitar lead that winds its way home through those early morning hours.
‘Dadadaba’ feels like a jam played out under a star strewn night sky. Sitar and flute weave around each other while a bass lazily picks out key points here and there. This is Kosmische and cosmic music if you get my meaning. Just shut your eyes and you are there under the firmament in bliss.
All too soon we reach the albums close with its title track. Heavy congas beat out the rhythm for the jangling guitars to swathe in their twinkling light. Flute and sitar join the throng and then things explode! A full-on psychedelic wig out jam brings proceedings to a close.
Mount Elephant is the sound of a musician tapping into the very heartbeat of the world. Drawing out its life force and moulding into shapes for us to dance to, relax to and just lose ourselves completely. This is music that takes you away in your imagination to far flung lands of wonder and antiquity. This is my kind of music and once you press play on this album it will become yours too.
Mount Elephant is out on September 13th 2024 via Fuzz Club. Its available on gold nugget or white marble vinyl from the Fuzz Club online store, the Upupayāma Bandcamp Page or your favourite record store.
You can follow Upupayāma on social media here….
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