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IN late 1996, MTV (then a bilingual music channel) aired the video of a song called Govinda by a band that, at the time, no one had heard of. Like the song, the video was pretty psychedelic and reminiscent of the hippy ’70s. The song stood out as more of an acceptance than a statement, though it was unsurprisingly lambasted from many, many quarters. It’s been over 10 years since Govinda and unfortunately, it continues to be Kula Shaker’s Achilles’ heel—the one that’s tagged them as a one-hit wonder.
After ’96’s runaway success K, Kula Shaker only released one more album before embarking on an eight-year hiatus. During that period, each of the band’s four members, led by lead singer Crispian Mills, embarked on individual side projects. Strangefolk, therefore comes on the back of, apart from a sophomore release, eight years of expectation.
Mills has never been one to play it safe. He was the subject of much controversy when he made comments about Adolf Hitler that were construed aversely by the music press. On this latest release we see the band taking some pretty big risks that disappointingly haven’t paid off.
Kula were pretty much a psychedelic, alternative rock band that based its music on strong guitar based rhythms and choruses. Here we meet a band that’s trying to be too many things at once. The opening track Out on the highway sounds exactly what you’d expect an ageing band to sound like on a comeback; sort of like Duran Duran. The formula is pretty traditional and the impression is terribly passé. The band jumps from one style to the other, going on occasion from post Revolver Beatles to floaty The Doors-like melodies. The problem is that the sum is far less than the individual parts put together.
The execution is not without blame either. Mill’s vocals lack spunk. Take the song Great Dictator for example. Pretty unimaginatively Mills repeats “I’m a dic, a dic, a dictator”, making him sound like a 10-year-old who’s just learnt that his voice is cracking and that there are several synonyms for a man’s privates. On Song of love, the band tries to pull another Govinda chanting a Sanskrit phrase repeatedly, but where Govinda was far more than a novelty, this isn’t even worthy of being that.
It’s singularly the most disappointing thing to see a band with such potential floundering like this. Maybe some decisions are better left unchanged.
ARJUN S RAVI, Kula Shaker, Strangefolk |