‘NATURAL MAGICK’ finds the original 4 members cas ng their most powerful spell yet with a mesmeric 13-track incanta on of blazing psychedelic sermons, stardust-coated pop pearls and mood-enhancing mantras — delivering their renewed wild energy that we know and love.

There is kinetic energy coursing through every second of ‘NATURAL MAGICK’ planted firmly in the rolling 24 hour news-feed mind-mash that is today’s Planet Earth.

“This chapter in the band’s life is very much driven by live energy and that connection with the audiences which comes with it,” explains Crispian Mills of the band’s approach. “It was very similar to the way we recorded K, back when we only had half an hour to blow people away, and recording much of it in-between shows while touring.”

The new album heralds the return of keyboard wizard Jay Darlington from a decade with Oasis and various Gallaghers, therefore reuniting all four members of the band’s classic line-up (Crispian Mills: guitar/vocals; Jay Darlington: Hammond organ/keys; Alonza Bevan: bass; Paul Winter-Hart: drums).

“It was one of those fortuitous moments of synchronicity,” says Crispian, “When we first reformed in 2007, Jay was s ll in Oasis, but at the end of last year the intertwining paths of fate brought us back together. There’s an excitement and momentum you feed off in these situations. It’s lightning in a bottle, so we wanted to capture that. Two days a er Jay did his first official gig back with us at Shepherd’s Bush Empire last December, we were in the studio recording new songs.

Their first single, the pulsating WAVES — a hymn to the communal euphoria of their never-better live shows — was written on the drive home after a triumphant gig in Manchester, and further touring
through January and February led to more recording.

“By the end of April we realised we’d slammed down 13 new tracks for a new album. And it was fun, too, because, apart from his wild organ-antics, Jay is also one of the funniest people.”

As shown by the recent slew of the band’s Mills-directed music videos, maintaining a sense of humour in the face of such provocation has been part of Kula Shaker’s armoury since the release of (pun)tas c debut hit ‘GRATEFUL WHEN YOU’RE DEAD/JERRY WAS THERE’ back in 1996. But then, what else would you expect from a group who named themselves after a ninth-century mystic and breached the top 5 twice in the same year with ‘HEY DUDE’ and ‘TATTVA’, a song written in Sanskrit, only to be followed by another, the majestic global message of ‘GOVINDA’. The band became UK album chart-toppers with 1996’s imperious debut album ‘K’ and 1999’s follow-up ‘Peasants Pigs & Astronauts’ saw them push the creative envelope prior to their premature dissolution the same year.

Having made a welcome return in 2007 with the self-funded  Strangefolk’, Kula Shaker have slowly and surely built towards the sonic summit, via 2010’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’, 2016’s ‘K 2.0’ and last year’s ‘1st Congregational Church Of Eternal Love And Free Hugs’. Now there is the excitement of ‘NATURAL MAGICK’ coming after the shortest gap, not just between Kula Shaker albums, but of any since the golden era of the music biz, when two albums per year was the expected normal.

It is all part of the ever-evolving Kula Shaker gospel which has both entertained and inspired listeners with songs like ‘Govinda’.

“Love is the source of all spiritual power.” Crispian muses, “Sure, you can look at the world and say it’s run by sickos, but I’m an optimist. The bands that I loved always connected me to something beyond the music — to the world that they inhabit. I like to think of us as a ‘gateway’ band to a happier, more spiritual reality.”