Kula Shaker – Wormslayer

British rockers Kula Shaker are back with Wormslayer: a mesmerising collection of rapturous tunes that, in classic Kula Shaker fashion, melds rock ballads with hypnotic Indian derived melodies.

Wormslayer opens with Lucky Number that kicks off proceedings with a twangy sitar line before abruptly shifting into a bluesy-and-bouyant rock centrepiece. It’s got all the romp and percussive attitude of British rock ‘n’ roll, but brings it into a headline collision with the swirling sounds of psych rock (think 60s rockers Steppenwolf cut with foot-stomping Brit-pop swagger). Good Money follows with some George Harrison-coded Revolver-style vocals à la Beatles Love You To to start before kicking things up a notch with some thunderously groovy basslines that marry funk-infused dance rhythms with mighty riffs and the hook of Crispian Mills’ chanty vocals.

Things begin to take a turn after a blistering run of rock-heavy tracks with the surly Little Darling: a sultry, balladic glamrock crooner that softens Kula Shaker’s sound with a gentler, but still discernibly trippy and mesmeric, vocal forward entry. Soon to follow is The Winged Boy that pairs choir-like vocals with the sharp reverb of Mills’ guitar and the infectious beat of percussion, that’s like the marching drum urging the track’s character, “Shaunie”, on. What comes next is an unexpected, brief but brilliantly folksy Day for Night: a Woody Guthrie, hard travellin’, inspired acoustic guitar-led piece designed for porch-playing with its mix of finger-picked rhythm, melodic vocals and simple, stripped-back production. It goes by in a breeze, standing at an oh-so-brief 80 seconds, but it will undoubtedly catch audiences’ attention. It’s a far cry from the album’s penultimate and eponymous track, Wormslayer, which immediately follows and runs for a whopping seven and a half minutes with its heavily Indian-rock laced melody, chiming organs and hard-hitting riffs. It’s an interesting parallel pairing of tracks, and Wormslayer, which may be too densely constructed for some, struggles to stand out.

A jolt to the system of pure, unabashed rock ‘n’ roll, Wormslayer is brimming with big and bold tracks of psychedelic rock that have been Kula Shaker’s bread-and-butter since their formation back in the 90s. There are some intriguing ideas here, and for the most-part the production is loud, instrument-forward and grandiose, but that’s not to say the album is without its occasional surprises, of which the stripped-back folk number Day for Night is the clear standout. Kula Shaker with Wormslayer aren’t reinventing the wheel; they have their sound, and they won’t change it for anybody. 30 years on from their debut album K, it proves to be as undeniably potent as it was in 1996.