… Although the material was soulful and funky, the basic underpinning of what the group did was smoky vocal jazz. Throughout the album, it works beautifully, mixing the best of old and new into a thoughtful brew that stands up to repeated listenings. The band's interpretation of Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" is a particular highlight.
This is possibly one of the most ironically titled albums in the history of rock. I can remember contemplating buying Vintage Violence long ago. I knew Cale had spent a couple years with the rough and cynical Velvet Underground, he was producing equally cutting-edge urban artists such as Nico and Iggy Pop, and he had a reputation for noisy avant-garde experiments. Surely this album of his was harsh, jaded, dissonant and possibly somewhat painful; …wrong! Quite the opposite, instead John gives us beautiful relaxed pastoral tunes with sentimental personal lyrics framed in folksy instruments such as acoustic guitar and piano, as well as plaintive pedal steel guitar and orchestral strings.
One of the more remarkable aspects of Stan Getz's 1972 masterpiece is just how organic he was able to keep the sound. The band surrounding Getz on this Columbia date was led by Chick Corea with his Return to Forever (electric) bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Tony Williams, and Brazilian master percussionist Airto. With the exception of Clarke, all the rest had played with Miles Davis in his then-experimental electric bands. Corea's Return to Forever was just getting itself off the fusion ground, while Williams had been with John McLaughlin and Larry Young in Lifetime on top of his experience with Davis.
By reviving the swirling, guitar-heavy sounds of late-'60s psychedelia and infusing it with George Harrison's Indian mysticism and spirituality, Kula Shaker became one of the most popular British bands of the immediate post-Brit-pop era. More musically adept and experimental than Cast, Kula Shaker nevertheless worked the same vaguely spiritual lyrical territory, but musically they brought the overpowering rush of Oasis to psychedelia, a genre that the Mancunians had previously avoided.
Pilgrim's Progress is the fourth studio album by Kula Shaker and was released on 28 June 2010. Kula Shaker are best known for the 1996 multi-platinum 'K', which became one of the fastest selling UK debuts ever. The band soon followed up with their second album ‘Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts’ and after a six-year absence Kula returned with the brilliant album 'Strangefolk' in 2007.
Pilgrims Progress is the fourth studio album by Kula Shaker and was released on 28 June 2010. Kula Shaker are best known for the 1996 multi-platinum 'K', which became one of the fastest selling UK debuts ever. The band soon followed up with their second album ‘Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts’ and after a six-year absence Kula returned with the brilliant album 'Strangefolk' in 2007. Deluxe edition box set limited to 1000 copies. Includes bonus CD "Lost & Proud".