“Let us go forth, you teller of tales.”
Here’s a tale for you. Back in the 90’s, a young band in Britain decided to take the rising Britpop sound, and mix it with classic 60’s psychedelia and various stylings of Indian music, and call themselves Kula Shaker. The group found some level of success, though didn’t attain the international fandom of groups like Oasis and Blur. But the band kept going, releasing great albums like 2024’s Natural Magik (in my Top 10 of that year), and playing excellent shows in sickness and in health.
Last year, the band shared a handful of new songs that showed they were still spreading their creative wings. The group delved into their funky side with “Good Money”, incorporating R&B rhythms and girl group backing vocals for a song that sounds like a lost 70’s club banger. It will certainly make you want to “join the freaks of the midnight circus.” They explored the darker edges of britpop (“We were all drinking blood in the shadows”) and haunting alternative sounds on “Charge of the Light Brigade”, played around with Dylan-goes-electric type melodies on the organ-led sing-along “Broke as Folk”.
They may have risen in the 90’s, but Kula Shaker‘s musical heart seems firmly in the 60’s, as the throwback elements of these tracks never feel like an homage. A “folk” song to them isn’t just a man and an acoustic guitar – it’s a fully orchestrated, lush production like the dreamy “Little Darling”. To Kula Shaker, pop songs are soulful and uplifting (and can still throw in great guitar riffs) like on “Shaunie”. And for Kula Shaker, the lyrics of their songs can be just as twisty and poetic as the music, as they spill out lines like “Your crooked smile dances on a serpent for your lover’s eyes” on “Be Merciful”.
There is clearly a debt to be paid to The Beatles (Sgt. Peppers era). If not for the fab four’s journey to the east, the seven and a half minute raga chant “Wormslayer”, with its evolution into a heavy, head-banging denouement, would likely not exist here. But it does, and much praise to the band for their willingness to still be as daring and experimental with their songwriting as their heralded inspirations.
The Bob Dylan and Beatles inspirations come together a couple more times on Wormslayer. You can hear it in the simple melody and thoughtful delivery of “Day for Night”, or in the mix of plaintive vocals and group harmonies on the philosophical closer “The Dust Beneath Our Feet”. And really, if the music of the 60’s is your gold standard, there are no two better artists to look to.
The album art for Wormslayer looks like the movie poster for a lost, Bollywood fantasy epic, and much like the whole album, is simply fun. I could dissect the intricacies of the songwriting and lyrics, but taken as a whole, the album is a wildly creative, hip-shaking collection of worldly retro vibes. That’s the tale to tell.
The album is out everywhere tomorrow, January 30th. Listen to the pre-released songs here.
The Indy Review 