Psst – the UK soul underground is buzzing. Didn’t you see our cover story last week? Over in Bristol, there’s a gang with a dreamy, doused-in-syrup psych-soul sound that calls to mind Connan Mockasin, Toro y Moi, Khruangbin and Canadian jazz outfit BadBadNotGood, who, incidentally, said that Cousin Kula were very good indeed and reportedly loved the five-piece’s cover of their track, Signal from the Noise.
The Kulas met at uni and live together in a house on the outskirts of the city, which you might rightly picture to be like a scene out of Skins, but it’s where the band have very studiously made their recent releases (see it in all its tapestry-hung glory in their Boiler Room live session). Their 2020 lockdown EP Casa Kula Cassette caught the ear of taste-making south London DJ Bradley Zero, who signed last year’s debut album, Double Dinners, to his hip house and jazz label Rhythm Section. Not bad for a band whose track McLovin’ You is named after the uber-nerd in Superbad.
It’s one of the standouts on Double Dinners, which is so laid back it sounds like it might fall over, if it weren’t for the slivers of sexy saxophone propping it up. Another key song, Now That You’re Gone, is a magic mushroom of a track, fully sounding as if they’re lost in a psychedelic ooze. You might want to come prepared, then, for their new live shows – they’re playing in a few select Rough Trade shops.
• Cousin Kula play London 26 April, Nottingham 11 May, Bristol 17 May
