Flash Amazonas uva-uva album New Vinyl LP 2022.

released October 28, 2022

Flash Amazonas are Ryota Miyake, Julián Mayorga, Owl, 狼, una panda de viejas y viejos, yegüitas, las olas de la convivencia, a Queen, トカゲ, zorrochuchos de hormigón, unas viejas guacharacas, two or more grapes, a ladybird that has eaten our eyes, 猫, a space goat, 300 hormigas, old and nuevos 友達

All songs composed, arranged, performed, produced, and recorded by Flash Amazonas in Madrid (Estudio Qarachupa) and Tokyo (Kotoriten Studio)

Mixed by Carlos Mas at Strongroom Studios, London

Mastered by Felix Davis at Metropolis Studios, London

Cover Ilustration by Camila Viéitez

Artwork by Marta Orozco, Sunao Maruyama and Ryota Miyake

Colombian and Japanese art-rock duo, Flash Amazonas mix DIY punk bolero, scrappy Latin no-wave and the absurdist fervor of early Talking Heads on new album uva-uva, forthcoming on 60nice. Named after an Ecuadorian money transfer business, self-conceded "modern band emulating a 90s band, emulating a 60s band”, Flash Amazonas evoke the esoteric psychedelia of Connan Mockasin with the social satire of Ohio new-wave five-piece Devo on uva-uva, an eleven track medley of apocalyptic Spanish and Japanese-language lyrical theatre and hyperbolic existential realism.

First crossing paths at Red Bull Music Academy in 2015, the story of Julián Mayorga & Ryota Miyake aka Flash Amazonas, is a tale that travels from Montreal, Tokyo, Madrid and Ibagué. Meeting at a two-week residency in Montreal, Colombian avant-pop quirksmith, Julián Mayorga and prolific Japanese producer/multi-instrumentalist, Ryota Miyake (Crystal, Sparrows) returned to their respective homes in Madrid and Tokyo with nothing but a wav of wonky futuristic bolero and an old CD-R of Mayorga’s, handed to Miyake on his way to the airport. Two weeks later, the two unknowingly started working on their first record, Binary Birds (2019) and later, uva-uva, a name Mayorga explains is mocking old cheesy, gringo, 60s pop bands in suits and bow ties, singing about love and heartbreak. Uva also means grape in Spanish – “I imagine this album tasting like bubblegum-flavoured grape” says Mayorga.

“A garden of thousands of refrigerators and brass plants spread across the highways” sings Mayorga on Cuando vuelva a Ibagué en 2060, a gloomy vision of death in the family upon his return to his decaying home town, Ibagué in the year 2060. Below scattershot rhythms and jerky synth/guitar lines, previous Meridian Brothers collaborator, Mayorga’s sardonic, frenzied lyrics written in both Spanish and Japanese (using Google Translate’s voice recognition) fable bizarre accounts from murder scenes on ballroom dancefloors (Ballroom) to alien insect attacks (Hormigas culonas).

“I like to think about music as material. I like to work with something I can touch, its edges, its restrictions etc. Pop music is like this, but in my case, I want to break it. I want to smash it and play with it. What can I say for the material to explode”.

On first single, Panda (Gang), a gang of exercise-obsessed old age pensioners plot to poison Mayorga and Miyake over classic, mid 1990s Beck-esque riffs plodding along prickly melodies and synthetic trumpets – check out the music video. Ululo (I howl), is a high-velocity political number referencing gusanos (worms), the term working class Cubans describe anti-Castro, Miami Beach types (“its larvae tempt me but I dodge them”), tipping its hat to English punk groups, Buzzcocks and The Ruts but also contemporary punk tellers like King Krule. La Reina es un lagarto (The Queen Is a Lizard) is a post-pandemic conspiracy theorists fever dream of vaccine questions, reptilian overlords and Michael Jackson moonwalking controversy, set to a jarring & grimy Brazilian samba, not dissimilar to Sao Paulo guitarist Kiko Dinucci’s Rastilho LP from 2020.

Second single, Ululo (I howl), is a high-velocity politically-charged racer based around Julián’s play on gusanos (worms), the term working class Cubans describe anti-Castro, Miami Beach types (“its larvae tempt me but I dodge them”). The crazed video (edited and directed by Mayorga and Marta Orozoco Villarrubia’s film collective Poetas Menores) follows Mayorga’s depiction of political and corporate elites making deals with the devil and demon creatures, whilst Miyake’s driving riff tips its hat to English punk groups, Buzzcocks and The Ruts but also contemporary punk tellers like King Krule.

Growing up at either end of well over 14,000km and a twenty-hour flight between them, two outsider artists in their respective worlds, who have met only 3 times face-to-face, in 7 years are growing to compliment each other perfectly. “Japanese and Colombians don’t like to impose. We are both very polite people and rather ask than act. It means he will let me do what I want and I will let him do what he wants.”

With highly-stylized pop art visuals, a fierce DIY ethos and an infinitude of wild fictions, Flash Amazonas have all the signs of becoming one of 2020s most fascinating and arcane cult groups. “We don’t behave like a regular band. If you already know what is going to happen at the end, then the material won’t speak to you. When you are open, the material will speak its truth. “