Kula Shaker - Wormslayer

Lucky Number; Good Money; Charge Of The Light Brigade; Little Darling; Broke As Folk; Be Merciful; Shaunie; The Winged Boy; Day For Night; Wormslayer; Dust Beneath Our Feet

(Strangefolk Records)

When Kula Shaker first emerged during the Britpop era of the mid nineties the band owed a huge debt to the psychedelic British rock bands of the sixties and the influence of traditional Indian music and mysticism which appear again in their new album. - which is just as prominent as in the past.

The band are to be congratulated for recording a new set of songs; most of their peers seem content to tour their back catalogue and have not set foot in a recording studio for years, in the process becoming heritage acts. Was it worth Kula Shaker making the effort? Indeed it most certainly was.

Led by frontman Crispian Mills the album sets off with all the aplomb, ceremony and rocking credentials that made Kula Shaker such an attractive prospect over thirty years ago as Lucky Number shines as brightly as the summer sun with a joyful guitar riff that recalls T Rex at their peak.

The band decide to tread a funky path on Good Money with Mills sounding uncannily like John Lennon with the psychedelic harmonies taking everyone back to the sixties whilst Charge of the Light Brigade continues at top speed as the band come up with another chorus that clings as tightly as a clinched fist.

Things slow down on Little Darling which comes with a fifties feel in the structure of the song which takes the band even further back in time no sooner as the album fast forwards to the late sixties with Broke as Folk coming on like a track that the Doors never recorded.

The title track of the album is one that needs a few listens, as the track mixes folk, psychedelic and rock info a melting pot of references that takes the listener on a journey that traverses many roads where you can almost smell the joss sticks emitting their fragrance as the bands flame burns brightly on this hypnotic number.

Still at the peak of their powers, this ambitious, joyful and engaging album is Kula Shaker doing what they do best. Welcome back.