Album Review: Kula Shaker – Wormslayer
3 min read
Kula Shaker have always veered slightly off the Britpop main road — sitars, Sanskrit, and streaks of the psychedelics that are as 1960s mysticism as it is 1990s culture. Led by Crispian Mills, the band carved their niche trough balancing Eastern influences with British rock. A split in 1999 was mended with their mid-2000s reunion, from where the band continues to follow their own, unique, mystical and musical compass. Wormslayer, released via Strangefolk Records, is named after a 9th century Indian poet king, and is their seventh studio album. Is the album a technicolour revival of the poet-king tradition, or more a case of second-hand spirituality with a sitar on top? Let’s dive right in…
Lucky Number kicks off proceedings with a distinct feel of late 1960’s/early 1970’s Marc Bolan about it, yet unmistakably Kula Shaker, which flows into the more current, yet incredibly groovy Good Money – complete with thumping tablas. Charge of The Light Brigade follows – a decent British indie rock track, but feels less of a monster than the previous tracks, while Little Darling is a little slower, but contains some fantastic distorted electric keyboards. Broke As Folk has a Pink Floyd-style intro, which shapes into sounding like a bit like a Doors track (very cool), which leads to the slower Be Merciful which builds through the track beautifully – and whilst not my favourite on the album, it is 100% in my top two.
Shaunie is a nice trip down memory lane, which builds from a simple acoustic guitar to a full accompaniment, and then around again, in a very 1970’s style, whilst the Pink Floyd meets Tubular Bells inspired The Winged Boy is another fantastic track. Short acoustic track Day For Night leads to penultimate track Wormslayer – the standout track on the album – heavier rock with some amazing sitar/Indian-origin sounds woven in throughout, taking prominence toward the later part of the track… oh if only the rest of the album had followed this formula. We round off proceedings with Dust Beneath Our Feet – a nice laid back track to close the album, with an Californian Americana feel to the track.
Wormslayer is a solid album with a decent standard throughout and a couple of standout tracks. Kula Shaker have carved this remarkable niche where their music has never sounded of the era, and so doesn’t really sound dated as time goes on, because it was meant to sound a little dated by design on release date. Personally, I’d have preferred more leaning on eastern mystical sounds, but I am a massive fan of the sitar in western music. Title track Wormslayer and Be Merciful are my go-tos on this one, but I think if you want to listen to a composite of 1960’s/1970’s psychedelic rock with 1990’s/modern British indie, you need to give the whole thing a listen – it would be worth your while!!
