Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts | ||||||||||
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Studio album by Kula Shaker | ||||||||||
Released | 8 March 1999 | |||||||||
Genre | Britpop, Psychedelic rock, Raga rock | |||||||||
Length | 54:11 | |||||||||
Label | Columbia | |||||||||
Producer | Bob Ezrin, George Drakoulias, Rick Rubin | |||||||||
Kula Shaker chronology | ||||||||||
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Allmusic | |
Los Angeles Daily News |
Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts is the second album by the British indie and psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker.
Initial recording sessions for the album were produced by John Leckie but the band soon decided to bring in producers George Drakoulias and Rick Rubin instead. Eventually Drakoulias and Rubin were rejected by the band and Bob Ezrin was brought in to complete the album. As a result of this, the production credits for the album's lead single, "Sound of Drums", name Drakoulias and Rubin as producers, while the rest of Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts is produced by Ezrin. Like its predecessor, K, the album continues the band's hybrid of 1960s-style psychedelic rock, groovy indie pop, and Indian instrumentation, albeit with a more progressive rock slant than on previous releases. Musically, many of the songs make use of Beatles-influenced psychedelic effects, swirling guitars, and Indian chants. This musical eclecticism prompted the band themselves to refer to Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts as their "kitchen sink album".
The album was partly recorded at the Astoria recording studio, a houseboat-studio owned by Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour. During production, the album was given the working title of Strangefolk, as lead vocalist Crispian Mills revealed during a BBC Radio 2 interview on 10 September 2007. Mills explained that the album's title was only changed to Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts at the last minute before release. However, the rejected album title was later reused for the band's 2007 comeback album, Strangefolk.