Kula Shaker

Named after a 9th century Indian saint and poet king, Kula Shaker seemed to have always existed in an alternate reality. Emerging in the midst of Britpop's lad-culture swagger and retrograde cool, Kula Shaker appeared like a luminous anomaly flooded with Sanskrit and sitar-drenched feedback. Fronted by the spiritually restless Crispian Mills, the band carved out their own mystical counter-narrative, fusing British psychedelia and eastern mysticism that felt less like a gimmick and more like an invocation.