Thirty years after K went straight to Number One, the original line-up has re-recorded the entire album live to tape, restored lost tracks and announced UK and European dates for early 2027.
by Paul Cashmere
Kula Shaker have returned to the album that launched them with K-Reinkarnate, a complete new live performance of their 1996 debut K, recorded entirely in analogue by the original line-up and due on 5 February 2027 through the band’s own Strange F.O.L.K. Records. The first taste is a fresh version of “Govinda”, the Sanskrit-language single that first set them apart during the Britpop years.
The project is neither a straight reissue nor a note-for-note recreation. Crispian Mills, Alonza Bevan, Paul Winter-Hart and Jay Darlington performed the songs in sequence at Middle Farm Studios, capturing how the material has shifted across three decades of live shows. The sessions were cut live to two-inch tape and mixed by Peter Miles and Ash Howes, the same team behind last year’s Wormslayer, the band’s highest-charting album since the mid-2000s.
Crispian Mills has long viewed “Govinda” as the song that defined the group. “It was the first song we ever played, blagging our way onto the Krishna stage at Glastonbury 1993, and in many ways it’s the song that came to define us,” he says. Sung entirely in Sanskrit and rooted in the kirtan tradition of devotional chanting, the track gave Kula Shaker a distinct identity when most of their peers were chasing different sounds. The band later formed a close connection with Himangsu Goswami and his family, kirtan singers for fourteen generations who also appeared on the original K. “Back in 1996 kirtan was mostly consigned to temples and ashrams,” Crispian notes. “It wasn’t the huge spiritual wellness phenomenon it is now.”
The decision to revisit the album was not automatic. The group had been encouraged to re-record their Columbia catalogue so Strange F.O.L.K. could own new masters, yet simply recreating 1996 felt wrong. Working with Peter Miles at the fully analogue Middle Farm Studios suggested another path: treat K as a living set of songs rather than a museum piece. “That’s the whole meaning of the word ‘reincarnate’,” the band explain. “It’s not about replicating K but summoning its spirit by playing it live and giving it ‘new flesh’.”
The sessions also recovered material left off the original release. “Shower Your Love”, “Hush” and “Drop in the Sea” were recorded during the 1996 sessions but never made the final running order. All three now sit in the new sequence. Most striking is “She’s So Free”, an unfinished piece recovered from a two-inch master tape that had been misplaced while the band moved between studios. Consisting only of piano, acoustic guitar and lead vocal, the track was completed in 2026 with new instrumentation and vocals. “What you hear now is the band of 2026 playing along with its previous incarnation, thirty years before,” the group say. “It was a wonderfully weird experience.”
K itself arrived on 16 September 1996 and went straight to Number One in the UK, becoming one of the fastest-selling debuts of its era. Driven by singles including “Tattva”, “Hey Dude” and “Govinda”, the album brought British psychedelia, Indian musical influences and Sanskrit mantra into the mainstream at a moment when those elements were still rare on commercial radio. The artwork by Dave Gibbons packed the letter K with a dense collage of cultural references, while a hidden spoken track after “Hollow Man” featured A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
The name Kula Shaker itself, Crispian points out, is more accurately Kulasekhara, a ninth-century saint and poet-king still remembered in South India. The connection once opened an unexpected door. While in Bombay and hoping to meet composer A. R. Rahman, Crispian received a two-line reply the next day: “My father’s name is Kulasekhara. Let’s meet up.”
K-Reinkarnate arrives as both companion and continuation. The original four musicians reclaim the songs with the chemistry and freedom earned through thirty years of performance. “K was the soundtrack to our youth; a magical time when anything is possible,” they write. “We hope you enjoy the reincarnation, and hope it helps you stay young at heart.”
Kula Shaker begin a headline tour of the UK and Europe in Luxembourg on 26 February 2027. The run ends at London’s Troxy on Saturday 20 March 2027.
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