Kula Shaker - Wormslayer

Kula Shaker are set to release their eighth studio album ‘Wormslayer’ on the 30th January. Released via Strange F.O.L.K Records, it follows 2024’s critically acclaimed ‘Natural Magick’.

In many ways, ‘Wormslayer’ picks up where they left off in 2024 with spiritual explorations and Beatles influences remaining prominent. ‘Dust Beneath Our Feet’ supplements the richness of The Grateful Dead with Stephen Stills’ soul-cleansing guitars (‘For What It’s Worth’). Whilst ‘Good Money’ strays from Sgt. Pepper's to Ravi Shankar to Cornershop with a playfully hazy groove. Both are enhanced by frontman Crispian Mills’ ability to fold in the bite of Lennon with his own penchant for melody. These well-trodden paths dominate proceedings for the most part.

Just another album for life-long fans?

That would be the case but for ‘Be Merciful’, ‘The Winged Boy’, and the title track ‘Wormslayer’. All are of such quality that they transcend to higher planes. ‘Be Merciful’, their latest single, a collaboration with Thom Yorke cohort Mark Pritchard, has a hauntingly cathartic feel. Mills and the backing singers bring a gospel tinge, while panoramic guitars act as liberators for souls trapped in purgatory.

‘The Winged Boy’, lights up the record with its vast science fiction landscapes. Mills’ guitars resound across galaxies like cries for help, warning signs, and at their most ecstatic, moments of heroism.

On ‘Wormslayer’, the hallmarks of all their finest moments lurk like loving psyche shadows caressing this new moment of genius. There’s a curiosity to Jay Darlington's keys and Mills’ mesmerising vocals in the early stages that only Robert Plant (and band) can match in the modern era. When they step on the power, they splice the boisterous blasts of the early Black Keys albums with their archetypal mysticism, allowing Mills’ gentler vocal to cut through and create pure magic.

Having released a run of fine albums over the past six years, it would be an understatement to say the band are in a purple patch. What Wormslayer achieves over ‘1st Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs’ and ‘Natural Magick’ is not reinvention, but elevation. Where ‘Tattva’ and ‘Govinda’ once stood as unique high points, ‘Be Merciful’, ‘The Winged Boy’, and ‘Wormslayer’ now take their place, signalling a band not just sustaining momentum, but surpassing themselves.

Click the image below for tickets to their upcoming tour:

Kula Shaker – Natural Magick

Kula Shaker return on Friday, the 2nd of February, with their seventh studio album, ‘Natural Magick’, via Strange Folk Records and Absolute. For the first time since 1998, keyboardist Jay Darlington returns to reunite the original line-up.

*images and artwork courtesy of Hermana PR.

Click the image to buy the album.

The band returned in 2022 after a six-year break with the album ‘1st Congregational Church of Eternal Love’, which marked a new era of great 60s-inspired psychedelic rock for the band. Can the old line-up continue this new run of form?

Based on recent singles ‘Waves’ and ‘Natural Magick’, their fire is burning bright.  The former blossoms with melodic sitars and bugged-out riffs, which frontman Crispin Mills wraps his Donovan via Syd Barret vocal around. Its melody is instantaneous, and Mills’ vocal is so buoyant it’s impossible not to be encapsulated by the joy of it all. However, this year's ‘Natural Magick’ thrusts into action with its best hook since ‘Hey Dude’ exploded onto the airwaves in 1996. Its psychedelic-funk licks stomp the way to the almost The Go! Team-esque DIY vocal breakdown. Ask any band that broke through in the mid-90s; breaking away from that era has been challenging for them. On these two singles, Kula Shaker appears to have embraced that time and put out singles worthy of their chart peak.

The band has always been known for their spaced-out psyche and Middle Eastern influences. They’ve been the bedrock for the band to manoeuvre away from the poppier moments with an ease that many bands struggle with. Bridging the gap is ‘Indian Record Player’. Opening with Ezra Furman-esque guitars and Cornershop‘s pop sensibilities, Mills returns to his Southall upbringing, discovering the soundtrack to Mughal-E-Azam and yearning for the ideal of 60s love and peace. The culmination is a groove which commands dancefloor and muso attention.

The band steps into full kaleidoscopic mode on ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Chura Liya (You Stole My Heart)’, both assisted by Laboni Barua’s spellbinding vocals, both come armed with mass cinematic appeal via Mills’ love of Bollywood. The former dips, peaks, and effortlessly grooves like classic Tarantino. Darlington’s hazy keys trip with a blissed-out freeness, allowing Barua to glide in with her divine, ethereal vocal. Then, the album spills over to bona fide classic territory on' Chura Liya'. They fuse the vastness of a Morricone epic, Bollywood, Lee Hazlewood vocals, and majestic widescreen brass and guitar licks of Arthur Lee’s Love.

The album's back end (‘Whistle And I Will Come’ / ‘Kalifornia Blues’ / ‘Give Me Tomorrow’) moves out from their mystical stance into a more timeless sense of writing. They don’t hit the heights of what came before it, but they add an enjoyable ballast for the poppier moments and the more thought-provoking tracks. Either way, they’ve tapped into the debut album energy of any great band desperate for your attention.

We suggest you give it to them.

Click the image below for tickets to their upcoming tour: