Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts [Import]

Kula Shaker | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Columbia Europe
• ASIN: B00000I8SX
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,843 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Great Hosannah

2. Mystical Machine Gun

3. S.O.S.

4. Radhe Radhe

5. I'm Still Here

6. Shower Your Love

7. 108 Battles (Of The Mind)

8. Sound of Drums

9. Timeworm

10. Last Farewell

11. Goldern Avatar

12. Namami Nanda-Nandana

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shower your love on me, July 13, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts (Audio CD)

Kula Shaker is a big of an oddity -- a 1990s band (recently reformed) that sounds like a classic psychedelic/Indian funk band from the sixties or seventies.

And their second album "Peasants Pigs and Astronauts is a seriously underrated little Britpop album, full of rich atmosphere, brilliant instrumentation, and a thick opulant blanket of Indian musical influence. Where else in modern music do you hear Sanskrit chants with blazing riffs?

It opens on a spacey, shimmering note, before seguing into the funky, catchy, wild "Great Hosannah." It's a surprisingly stirring song calling for all people to join together, because, Crispin Mills asks us a bit uncertainly, "Will we arise in our time/At the dawn of another meaning/Will we awake at the break of a great hosannah?"

It's followed by the sinuous, swirling rocker with a great name "Mystical Machine Gun." Then they follow it up with a slew of solid rock'n'roll, flavoured with a heavy Indian vibe -- psychedelic blues, roof-raising rockers, bouncy Doors-like pop with samples of thunder, soft acoustic ballads, and little yowling songs that cycle gently in chiming, colourful circles.

It came as a shock to me to learn that Kula Shaker (named after an Indian holy man, Kulasekhara) only formed in the mid 1990s. Listening to their sound and their socially critical lyrics, I thought they were a product of the sixties or seventies, whose music had stayed timeless.

But as I listened to it more, it became clear that this music was a more modern type. It has deliciously barbed, jagged riffs paired with cycling, ethereal guitars, even in mellow love songs like "Shower Your Love." And it's laced with bells, funky horns, eerie flutes, smashing drums, rippling retro keyboard and spacey synth. It's all woven tightly together, into pop songs with a dozen layers of sound. But they also do something a bit more recent, slipping in delicate samples of church bells, singing birds, and a weird little voice.

Crispian Mills has that retro flavour as well -- he pours his heart into his rough-sounding vocals, as he belts out everything from neo-psychedelic weirdness ("You're a wizard in a blizzard/A mystical machine gun") to tender love songs ("Shower your love on me/Don't make it so hard to cry"), and a few awkwardly phrased calls for revolution ("Well, I laugh and catch the sun/'cause it's gonna be revolution for fun").

The newly reformed Kula Shaker mishmash retro instrumentation, Indian funk and blazing rock'n'roll together in their second album, an underrated little Britpop gem.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The gods of rock & revolution for fun!, April 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts (Audio CD)

First I thought I didn`t like this album as much as K, but now I know how wrong I was. 'Great Hosanna' is a perfect song with the most incredible intro. 'S.O.S.' truly has it, one of the best songs on the album! No bad songs on the album! I'll say '108 Battles' and 'Timeworm' are one of the best ones. PP&A is one of the best albums I've ever bought. Though I have to say this is not so mainstream as K was. Just buy this record, it's worth it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Very high three stars that is........., March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts (Audio CD)

Kula SHaker are a great band and this is a good album. YOu just get the feeling that for every magical piece of music, theres another track which isnt so awe inspiring. "Shower your love" is pure genius yet something like "SoS" is pretty average. A lot of Inadian influence which isnt a bad thing. Yet they could have done without the horns. Nice album but not life changing.