Shaker-in-chief Crispian Mills was only a twinkle in the cosmos when The Beatles decamped to India in February 1968, a fruitful period in which they wrote around 30 songs and introduced Indian spirituality to Western rock music.
Natural Magick, the seventh album from Kula Shaker and the first in 25 years from the band’s original line-up, continues the fascination with psyched-up mysticism, laced with protest songs against the Blue Meanies of the modern world.
The furious opening blast of Gaslighting, with shades of Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised repurposed for the social-media age, gives way to the more celebratory Waves and Happy Birthday, laden with sitar and finger cymbals.
There’s a whiff of ‘things were better in the 90s’ along with the incense, but infectious tunes save the day, notably on Whistle And I Will Come, and Something Dangerous, which is reminiscent of Village Green-era Kinks.
