Hupo – A Few Sparks

We all need some catchy, memorable, captivating instrumental music from time to time. Sometimes we just need to escape the background noise, the mundanity of daily life, sit back, relax, and enjoy what a couple of perfectly aligned instruments have to say. But to touch the hearts and minds of the broader audience, the bands need to nail that sweet spot where guitars resonate with clear, ethereal, straightforward themes, basslines deliver power, and the drums do more than simply keep the pace. If you dabbled with instrumental music before, you know that’s sometimes a difficult task to achieve, and bands capable of escaping predictability, repetition, and blandness are extremely rare nowadays. Thankfully, every once in a while, a band capable of exploring more than just plain, simple, same old instrumental music appears, breaking all the rules and shapeshifting the boundaries of contemporary music. Hupo, a collective of highly skilled musicians based in China, is one of those music outlets that simply makes your jaw drop, and your ears crave more with each new sonic and rhythmic maneuver. With “A Few Sparks,” their latest full-length album released on vinyl and all streaming platforms on June 14th, they create an orchestral oddissey that from first to last song keeps your listening apparatus occupied. And the best part about it, you do not need vocals to keep your attention to those compositions. Quite the contrary, Hupo makes those instruments speak louder than any words. Very few bands are capable of doing that with such precision and finesse as these folks do. Sonically, “A Few Sparks” combines several styles at once. Perhaps post-rock comes to mind first, as the band incorporated all the fundamental elements of this genre into each segment of every song, but do not be surprised if you stumble upon kraut rock or art rock along the way. If you dive even deeper into those songs, you’ll notice bits and pieces borrowed from psychedelic or progressive rock, but these styles serve more as enhancements, accentuations, and decorations during the particular compositions, while the band remains loyal to the primary sonic direction. With the sonic arsenal like this at their disposal, and all the tools of the trade that define all the exceptional musicians, you know you’re bound for a mindblowing listening experience.

Hupo is a band with a sole purpose of building a captivating atmosphere where each theme, melody, and harmony wraps around your listening apparatus and refuses to let go long after the last notes and beats fade away. That’s what’s happening here, as soon as “Melodic Odyssey” commences. This introductory composition carries that calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal flow, empowered with hypnotic chord progressions and marvelous themes, and decorated with saxophone in just the right places. Naturally, the song evolves with each new segment, with more instrumental layers involved in shaping that otherworldly ambiance. The rhythm section, built upon subtle yet vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines and steady beats, keeps everything in line while providing a moderate pace. With an almost ten-minute runtime, it represents such a perfect introductory piece that showcases capabilites of the entire band. The rhyhtm section on “Off The String” speeds up things a bit more, with all those energetic, groovy, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics offering more power while the guitars articulate with jangly, angular, beautiful, fascinating themes, melodies, harmonies, and chord progressions. By now, you’ll realize that Hupo’s aim is to construct an atmosphere where every guitar maneuver becomes so imprinted in your mind, and with the help of the additional synth lines, they successfully make those themes even more intricate. “Waterweed” carries that psychedelic atmosphere where the elements of post-rock meet all those reverby, echoic, ethereal guitar works. Paired with the halt-time rhythmic patterns that expertly support the intentions of the entire band, every instrument has its place and purpose here, creating another excellent composition where every member plays a significant role. “A Thousand Hills” is one of those standout post-rock compositions where the band applies all the rules of the genre but also adds a signature and makes it entirely their own. It has to do with how the introductory synth ambient pads are paired with traditional instruments. During this particular segment, you’ll be treated with sonic maneuvers that are mesmerizing, easy-listening, and soul-healing. The band gradually introduces tastefully distorted riffs, marvelously paired with the beautiful, reverby leading theme. As is usually the case, the guitars expand into uncharted territories, while the calm percussions transit from powerful tom fills to excellent rhyhtmic patterns, as the song approaches the end. During the entire composition, Hupo embraces and combines traditional ethno music with post-rock, making this composition such a memorable piece.

Hupo’s love for krautrock music can be heard in “Millet Fields,” another brilliant composition that begins with such a catchy bassline. Those warm, groovy, melodic low-ends are supported by well-accentuated rhythmic sequences, while the guitars gradually expand their interplays with many beautiful themes and tastefully distorted chord progressions. Like many of their songs, this one also carries that particular space created by adding reverb over the instrumentation. It plays a significant role because each instrument has more depth, and overall atmosphere resembles as if you’ve been listening to their set in a concert hall. Everything resonates with those gentle, subtle, melodic notes that suddenly become more commanding, angular, jangly, and tastefully distorted. And also, it’s importan to mention how each composition exists in its personal space, like it is a universe of its own, yet it beautifully works with the remainder of the album. That’s the case with “Evernight Unending,” another fine piece of sonic artistry where Hupo employs everything they dearly love about post-rock, krautrock, psych-rock, cinematic ambient music, and then work their way around the initial theme, expanding their guitar interplays, reverby accentuations, intricate basslines, and well-accentuated beats. It’s nearly mindblowing how the main theme starts and how it ends, becoming one continuous journey that will definitely keep your ears occupied for a while. “Soulstep Highland” gradually prepares the listener for the closure with its beautiful acoustic chord progressions, while the electric guitar lurks somewhere in the background, creating that ethereal space and adding more depth and detail to the song. The percussion gradually builds the slow-motion pace that at times sounds so calm, soothing, and relaxing, and at other times may seem like it could expand into colossal slabs of groove. But what makes this song so fascinating is how many psychedelic moments it has. With each chord progression, pad, and articulation of flute and sax, you can feel how Hupo crafts a unique world where every orchestration plays the main role. This epic sonic journey comes to an end with “West Of Taibai,” a long, evocative exploration into a krautrock universe. With  the steady, energetic rhyhtmic patterns, commanding basslines, and guitars that sound experimental, enchanting, hypnotic, addictive, and memorable, Hupo embarks on a twelve-minute journey that will immediately force you to spin this post-rock gem all over again.

With “A Few Sparks,” Hupo has unleashed a post-rock record for a year. There’s no way you’ll find a better piece of work right now. With the tremendous ideas and exceptional musicianship, they crafted a lush, innovative, fascinating space where each guitar interplay, intricate bassline, and beat illustrates a mesmerizing, ethereal, otherworldly post-rock universe. The brilliance and musicianship of this band is unmatched, so if you’re looking for a record that immediately grabs you by the collar and launches you to uncharted territories where every instrument indulges your listening apparatus, then Hupo’s “A Few Sparks” is a perfect pick for you. You simply do not want to miss this album!