Kula Shaker are celebrating 30 years since their landmark debut album K with K-Reinkarnate, a complete analogue re-recording of the record performed by the band’s original line-up. Due for release on 5th February 2027 through Strange F.O.L.K. Records, the album revisits the songs that propelled the British psychedelic rockers to the top of the UK charts in 1996, bringing a fresh perspective to a record that helped define the era.
Alongside the announcement, the band have shared a newly recorded version of Govinda, their distinctive single sung entirely in Sanskrit, and confirmed a headline tour across the UK and Europe in February and March 2027, culminating at London’s Troxy on 20th March.
Kula Shaker
Rather than a conventional anniversary reissue, K-Reinkarnate finds Crispian Mills, Alonza Bevan, Paul Winter-Hart and Jay Darlington performing the album in sequence, capturing how the songs have evolved through three decades of live shows. Recorded live to two-inch tape at Middle Farm Studios, the project embraces an entirely analogue approach, with mixing handled by Peter Miles and Ash Howes, the production team behind the band’s 2025 album Wormslayer.
For Kula Shaker, the intention was never simply to recreate the sound of 1996. The band had previously considered re-recording their early catalogue to create new masters, but felt that attempting to reproduce the original album would miss the point. Working with Miles at Middle Farm Studios offered a different possibility: capturing the spirit of K through the musicians they have become, rather than trying to replicate a moment in time.
The band explain that the word reincarnate captures the project’s philosophy: giving familiar songs new life by performing them in the present and allowing the intervening years of touring to shape their sound.
The newly recorded Govinda is central to that idea. Originally released as a single in 1996, the song became one of Kula Shaker‘s defining tracks, bringing devotional Sanskrit chanting and Indian musical influences into British alternative rock at the height of the Britpop era.
Mills recalls that Govinda was the first song the band ever played together, after they blagged their way onto the Krishna stage at Glastonbury in 1993. Its fusion of kirtan, a tradition of devotional singing and chanting, with psychedelic guitar music helped establish an identity that stood apart from many of their contemporaries.
He also reflects on how the band’s understanding of the tradition deepened through their friendship with Himangsu Goswami and his family, kirtan singers whose musical heritage stretches back 14 generations in Bangladesh. While George Harrison had already introduced elements of Indian spirituality to a mainstream Western audience, Kula Shaker found their own way of incorporating these influences into their music.
The result was a song that became synonymous with the band’s distinctive blend of Eastern mysticism, British psychedelia and rock’n’roll energy. Three decades later, Govinda remains an essential part of their live identity, making it a fitting choice to introduce K-Reinkarnate.
The sessions also provided an opportunity to revisit material recorded during the original K sessions but left off the finished album. Shower Your Love, Hush and Drop In The Sea have been restored to the running order, newly sequenced alongside the original tracks to create an expanded version of the album’s world.
Perhaps the most unusual discovery was She’s So Free, an unfinished recording recovered from a two-inch master tape. Originally comprising piano, acoustic guitar and lead vocal, the track had been misplaced as the band moved between studios in 1996 and subsequently forgotten.
For the new project, the band completed the song with additional instrumentation and vocals recorded in 2026. The result brings together two versions of Kula Shaker separated by 30 years, with the present-day musicians effectively performing alongside their younger selves.
The group describe the experience as a wonderfully strange encounter between the band’s past and present, making She’s So Free one of the most intriguing additions to the project.
Originally released in 1996, K went straight to Number One in the UK Albums Chart, establishing Kula Shaker as one of the most distinctive British bands of the decade. Singles including Tattva, Hey Dude and Govinda helped propel the album’s success, while its combination of psychedelia, Indian instrumentation and spiritual themes offered an alternative to the prevailing Britpop sound.
The band went on to release Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts before its members pursued other projects. They reunited in 2006, subsequently establishing their own Strange F.O.L.K. Records label and returning to recording and touring. Their more recent albums have continued to chart in the UK, with Wormslayer, released in 2025, marking another successful chapter in their ongoing career.
With K-Reinkarnate, Kula Shaker are not simply looking back at the record that introduced them to a wider audience. Instead, they are revisiting its songs as a living body of work, shaped by the chemistry, experience and freedom developed through decades of playing together.
The band hope the new recording will reconnect long-time listeners with the spirit of their youth while introducing the music to a new generation. As the 30th anniversary approaches, K-Reinkarnate offers a chance to hear K anew, with its original spirit intact but its performances transformed by time.
Upcoming UK Live Dates:
MARCH
11th – Birmingham, O2 Institute
12th – Manchester, Albert Hall
13th – Brighton, Dome
16th – Glasgow, SWG3
17th – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
18th – Cardiff, Great Hall
20th – London, Troxy
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