ninehertz

If the recent upturn in the heat has left you with a desire for something more relaxed than your usual metal fare, you’d be wise to look to Upupayāma’s new album Honesty Flowers, out through the ever-reliable Fuzz Club Records.

This is one long (well over an hour) chill out session, ebbing and flowing on a celestial plain through the beats and rhythms of krautrock, world music and all the colours of psychedelia. As a bongo opens matters on Fliiim / Laliīmph, it starts to work its magic quickly and you’ll be embracing the onset of summer in seconds. As the psych guitars and world music percussion enter it drives into the same vibrant spaces as that of Goat, with a funk spirit and kinetic groove.

If anything, it reclines towards an even more relax state from there. See the stripped back repetition that create a low buzz meditative reality warping shield on In the Solstice Sun, or the hint of prog generated by the wonderful flute on the otherwise hip beat psychedelia of Gilded Meditations.

It travels the clouds, the cosmos, and – on Sound Mirrors – I imagine the desert, as the calm of minimal instrumentation is disrupted by desert winds disturbing the sands. There are a couple of moments where I lose connection, where it drifts a little, an almost inevitable outcome of such a long record. But for the main, Honesty Flowers is a pleasant and soulful psych record perfect for the time of year.