Kula Shaker Strange Folk  (Strange Folk)

AFTER a lengthy time away from the music industry, Crispian Mills and Kula Shaker return with their first new material in six years and immediately impress with their expert blend of indie rock and retro haze.

Strange Folk is an album steeped in classic values – hinting at both the mysticism of K era tracks like Govinda but also drawing from the likes of Hendrix, Zeppelin, The Doors, The Beatles and The Beach Boys at times.

Rather than appearing as a mere imitation, however, the songs contain a vibrancy that keeps them contemporary, while trading well on the current guitar revival that has paved the way for countless new acts and a fair few revivals over the past few months.

Early evidence of Kula Shaker’s return to prominence came in the form of sweeping first single Second Sight, which offered a thrilling combo of guitars and stylaphones, complete with psychedelic vocals and some thrilling tempo changes. One second it’s flirting with glam-rock, the next psychedelia, and the next some of the best riffing of Zeppelin and Hendrix.

Yet throughout, the hits come thick and fast. There’s a clever nod to global politics on the super-charged Great Dictator (Of The Free World) that jostles some thumping guitar licks with intricate, Beach Boys-laced vocal melodies. The chorus is one to get people chanting.

While Song Of Love/Narayana combines hammonds, funky bass and some brass-like stabs to brilliant effect, and also draws on some mystical chanting.

Shadowlands is a magnificently moody slow-builder about love that just gets better and better the further you get into it, and Fool That I Am is another retro-steeped beauty that’s sure to provoke comparisons with The Yardbirds.

Hurricane Season, meanwhile, is a real epic that starts off folksy and occasionally Dylan-esque before exploding to life on a couple of occasion with some hammond organs that wouldn’t sound out of place on a classic Jim Morrison cut. It comes complete with sea-side sound effects (gulls, sea breeze, etc), just to lay its summery credentials bare.

Ol’ Jack Tar, meanwhile, flirts with the mysticism of Tattva as well as late era Beatles, enabling Mills’ vocals to come over really laidback and psychedelic. It’s the sort of hazy daydream of a track that’s designed to ease the blues away.

Dr Kitt, on the other hand, opens with a seductive harp and some 70s-era flute to usher in another gem of a recording – the type of track that could easily grace a hallucogenic Austin Powers sequence, or be found on the jukebox of a Tarantino movie.

And the album ends in rousing fashion with the more straight forward rock of Super CB Operator, the sort of classic effort that ought to appeal to anyone who gets their kicks out of Oasis and Kasabian at their most swaggering. It’s a fun track that signs off in style, leaving you on a high.

Kula Shaker’s return is therefore a major triumph for them – a gloriously old school joyride through the best the guitar genre has to offer, cheekily soundchecking some of the greats while simultaneously impressing on its own merits. We’d urge you to become acquainted with the Strange Folk.

Download picks: Second Sight, Fool That I Am, Great Dictator, Shadowlands, Ol Jack Tar, Dr Kitt, Super CB Operator

Pigeon Detectives Wait For Me  (Dance To The Radio)

SADLY not a new venture from Lilian Jackson Braun, author of those ever so cute books where cats solve crimes, The Pigeon Detectives are another one of those ‘hotly-tipped’ British indie bands.

 The debut album by these particular doves from above (well, from near Leeds, actually) is produced by Will Jackson, who has also worked with Kaiser Chiefs and Embrace. But don’t give up on them yet, because Wait For Me shows a band with a great deal of promise.

 The twelve tracks of guitar-driven anthemic indie-rock on offer here are a cut above most of the Kaisers and Arctics impersonators currently plying their trade. Matt Bowman’s vocals are confidently rowdy and he is ably backed by a band tightly honed by constant touring and a definite ability to pen a quality tune.

Bouncy

 The four singles taken from the album to date are undoubtedly the standout tracks. I’m Not Sorry and especially You Know I Love You are infectious songs with bouncy guitar riffs and lyrical stories that hint at a band with an eye and ear for the poetry of everyday life.

 Romantic Type, a chirpy angular British guitar anthem with a Feeder-esque rocker of a chorus, is their biggest hit to date but catchy singalong I Found Out could have been this year’s Chelsea Dagger given more mainstream airplay. 

 Some of the other songs border on the formulaic, drawing on influences like The Libertines and even The Kinks, but are never less than entertaining – indeed, the keyboard-backed Stop Or Go is an English take on the Killers of such brilliance that anyone disappointed in the Las Vegas boys’ recent Sam’s Town album’s inability to match the heights of Hot Fuss would be well advised to get their hands on it.