If I could jump into a time machine and take Kula Shaker’s Peasants, Pigs, and Astronauts back to the late 60’s, I believe that the free loving hippies would totally dig the groove. Kula Shaker has been labeled as wanna-be psychedelic rockers of the past, but Peasants, Pigs, and Astronauts is a true and authentic album of the 90’s. The band seemed to take a different approach in making this record, compared to their last release, K. The first album was loaded with the flashy guitar work of Crispian Mills and the band’s ability to go from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. The new album has the same psychedelic rock feel, but they have improved by adding more musical elements such as the heavier sounding organ of Jay Darlington, synthesizers, and a bigger bass tone from Alonza Bevan.
The band’s first single, “Mystical Machine Gun”, is a big shocker because it’s something you don’t hear in everyday radio airplay. The track clocks in at a little over five minutes and thirty seconds. It is a very complex song; the layering of the vocal tracks and added samples are mind-boggling. Crispian Mills’ singing appears to have acquired some serious confidence over the last two years. “Mystical Machine Gun” displays his ability to capture the listener’s musical heart and ear. Mills creates a waterfall of words that lures you into the song. “Alien identity/don’t you hide your pretty face from me/you awoke to the middle of your life, and no one was there for you/open-up to where you first began/a nicotine junkie singing for a cola can.”
Kula Shaker has always incorporated their Buddhist beliefs and culture into their musical texture. Cuts such as “Radha Radha”, “Namami-Nanda-nandana”, and “Timeworm” will challenge the listeners to expand their minds. These tracks are straight-up middle-eastern music with sitars, various drums, and the integration of the very sacred middle-eastern tradition of chanting and singing. “S.O.S” will take you back to the era of James Bond as the organ and guitar open with this unbelievable hook that sounds similar to the theme music of those movies. Elvis even appears on this album. If you listen carefully to the opening of “Last Farewell”, you can hear him in the background over Mills’ blues melody. Kula’s energy and overall feeling on this record is at its best displayed in “Sound of Drums”. It is probably one of the best songs they ever recorded; it seems to tell the audience this is what the band is all about. Kula Shaker is a great live band. A live presentation of this album would be an experience in itself. Why is this a solid record? The answer is in the music.
+ larry sarzyniak
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