Kula Shaker

Why Kula Shaker didn’t really maintain their initial commercial and critical success in the late ‘90s probably hasn’t troubled too many beyond their immediate circle. A bit more than a flash-in-the-pan they came in on the tail end of Britpop, albeit several steps removed from that with a more psychedelic and experimental sound. This led to successful singles and a bestselling debut album. However, Crispian Mills didn’t endear himself to the music press, and the ‘difficult’ second album tanked.

What we have here is Kula Shaker’s fifth album in 20 years and it’s good to hear that they are still taking chances.

Opening with Infinite Sun they hit the ground running with a heady bongy mix of sitars and psychedelia. It’s a theme that continues throughout the album though not quite as blatant again until closer Mountain Lifter, which naturally partners the preceding borderline heavy rock of Get Right Get Ready.

Between those Kula Shaker feel free to experiment with various themes; hardly surprising that there’s a touch of the wild west within High Noon, the 60’s pop of Holy Flame, while Death of Democracy is actually a bit of a sea-shanty.

This may all sound as it is totally disparate but it holds together very well and it's actually very refreshing that there doesn’t seem to be an obvious single (sore thumb?) on the album. It has been a while but K 2.0 is an interesting and a very strong return for Kula Shaker.