every damn track<\/em>, is a recipe for success. Mills\u2019 voice is in fine form, and his lyrics continue to focus on having a good time leavened with a (never overbearing) spiritual bent.<\/p>\nThe sitars and tablas still figure into the mix, but they\u2019re generally dialed back a bit as compared to the arrangements on K<\/i>, the group\u2019s stellar 1996 debut. Shouted chorus vocals are something of a hallmark on Natural Magick<\/i>; the opening track \u201cGaslighting\u201d features both Mills and bassist Alonza Bevan chanting lyrics. And the title track features mass vocals reminiscent of Go! Team (but with that Britpop foundation).<\/p>\n
Peppy handclaps and \u201860s combo organ pop up in \u201cIndian Record Player,\u201d but so too do other sonic textures including some absolutely lovely orchestral strings. If anyone ever remade The Beatles\u2019 Help!<\/i> \u2013 though they really shouldn\u2019t \u2013 this song could fit into the soundtrack. The fetching \u201cChura Liya (You Stole My Heart\u201d has a character that\u2019s equal parts faux-Spanish (by way of Herb Alpert) and spaghetti western, with an unexpected female lead soprano vocal.<\/p>\n
The Indian musical values that informed early Kula Shaker finally come to the fore on \u201cSomething Dangerous.\u201d Its alluring campfire character might call to mind the Beatles\u2019 Rishikesh adventure. And while nearly all Kula Shaker music is breathlessly upbeat, the band slows things way down for the waltzing balladeering of \u201cStay With Me Tonight.\u201d With faint echoes of early \u201870s Rolling Stones, it\u2019s a nice break from the raving, and shows a subtler side of the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy Birthday\u201d (not the one you\u2019re thinking of) serves up more of those irresistible Indian vibes, crossed skillfully with a deep groove and some tasty yet straightforward Hammond organ. The band rocks \u2013 and hard \u2013 on \u201cIdontwannapaymytaxes,\u201d protest music, Kula Shaker style. But there\u2019s a giddiness, a sense of fun that keeps the message from getting too serious. A sort of spoken-word-with-music addendum to that track, \u201cF-Bombs\u201d feels like the kind of thing that would have worked better live onstage. It\u2019s neither terrible nor an embarrassment, but neither is it especially necessary in the musical context of the album.<\/p>\n
That very minor quibble notwithstanding, Natural Magick<\/i> is astoundingly consistent: every song sounds like Kula Shaker, yet every track offers something unique. The songs aren\u2019t a case of \u201cthat was good; let\u2019s write twelve more like it.\u201d And while the backing vocals on the band\u2019s records have always been solid, on Natural Magick<\/i> they seem to have taken things to the next level. \u201cWhistle and I Will Come\u201d delivers rock power, subtlety and a life-affirming vibe all within the confines of a three-minute-plus pop tune.<\/p>\n
\u201cKalifornia Blues\u201d swaggers, but its la-la-la vocal breaks and bits of jangle make the tune feel inviting, not petulant or threatening. And the album ends with something completely different: \u201cGive Me Tomorrow\u201d strips away the busy dance floor percussion and creates a vibe that wouldn\u2019t have been at all out of place on a George Harrison album of the \u201870s. The tune might come as something of a shock to those who have been drawn in by Kula Shaker\u2019s signature sound, yet it\u2019s ultimately not inconsistent with their body of work. It\u2019s a swoonworthy love song \u2013 with ultra-subtle quoting of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cThis Boy\u201d — sporting a soaring arrangement, and a contender for the best cut on a rock-solid album.<\/p>\n
Mills and his band mates (Bevan and Darlington plus drummer Paul Winterhart) have long since perfected their blend of East and West, and far from sounding dated and fixed-in-the-\u201990s, Natural Magick<\/em> sounds and feels timeless. And the stop-on-a-dime dynamics used to conclude several of the album\u2019s tracks is an effective production\/arrangement choice.<\/p>\nNearly three decades after their debut, Kula Shaker have roared back with a winner. Let\u2019s hope a U.S. tour follows (there was one last year, but I only learned of it days ago).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a swirling, heady and supercharged approach, Kula Shaker is back. Darlings of the \u201890s Britpop scene, the group led by Crispian Mills made some of the most appealing music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,57,62,65],"tags":[5326],"class_list":["post-26827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-psych","category-rawk","category-review","tag-kula-shaker","cat-49-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26827"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26840,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions\/26840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/kula_shaker_natural_magick.jpg\")
With a swirling, heady and supercharged approach, Kula Shaker is back<\/i>. Darlings of the \u201890s Britpop scene, the group led by Crispian Mills made some of the most appealing music of the \u201890s. And while many might not have known it, the band never broke up. Their approach \u2013 think Blur, Oasis or Stone Roses crossed with mid sixties George Harrison \u2013 was refreshingly novel then, and it still resonates today. The 13 songs on their latest, Natural Magick<\/i> \u2013 out digitally in February, with physical release to follow in March \u2013 display all of the sonic virtues that made Kula Shaker a breath of fresh air three decades ago.<\/p>\n