Sky High

Our story begins in outer space, where no man has gone before, where no one can hear you scream.  It's the eternal emptiness, the vast nothingness, the mind-boggling possibility of such a frontier, that has informed the music on New Zealand quintet Kora's latest record, Light Years. The sound has been dubbed 'alien funk', with guitarist Laughton Kora joking, “Alien funk is anything out of this world electronically.”

Fran Kora laughs about the sonic tag. “I have no idea where that came from,” he chuckles. It doesn't matter really, because with Light Years, Kora have indeed headed out of this world, exploring new sonic frontiers, breaking down barriers, as has been their wont and their way since forming in the early-'90s.

This time is quite different though. The band have eschewed guitars, and brought in an arsenal of synthesisers, hence the electronic reference from Laughton. Given the group have always been strongly rooted in reggae, dub, rock and funk – all very guitar-based genres for the most part – it's an interesting direction in which to go.

“Well, we've always had synthesisers,” Fran Kora says. “It was just this time around, it was easier to get the sounds. We couldn't get these sounds on guitars unless they were distorted… so it was just easier to get those sounds from synthesisers, we could get a bottom end without it sounding [bad].”

The sounds the band have created here are indeed heavily electronic, and they create a big, rich soundscape, one which isn't harnessed by the surly bonds of genre and style, but which can go in any direction they please. It also seems like the band went in to record Light Years, which comes a good five years after their eponymous debut, with no real plan in mind. The exercise was one of adventure, creating and following until they found something they liked that worked.

“Yeah, that's right,” concurs Kora. “I mean, every song we turned inside out, you do the full circle, you come back to the beginning again. There were a lot of songs that were really rocky, that had guitars and stuff, but when we pulled them back into the studio, we pared them back and moved towards the synths… and that just suited the whole 'journey' of the album.

“And [this process] was different for each person, actually. I found it quite frustrating… some of the guys took to it easily, but I work inside of the box, [not really] with the electronic side, but once I understood that, it became easier.”

It's obvious from his conversation with Time Off that Kora the musician, and indeed, Kora the band, are very happy with how Light Years has turned out, particularly given it's come so long after its predecessor.

“Yeah, we're really happy with how it's turned out, I mean there's always a bit of pressure with the second album, those second album blues,” he smiles. “[And the reason it comes five years later], it was just the timing in everyone's lives. Everyone's got families and there are projects outside of the band as well. And it is like a long time, but it actually feels like yesterday that we released the last record.” Kora are a group who can't help but go from strength to strength, always testing the sonic boundaries, striving to go further than any band has gone before. And while Kora says they'll bring the guitars back for their next release, at least in part, in the meantime, the sky is the limit.

Kora will be playing the following shows:

Saturday 24 November - The Hi-Fi, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 25 November - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 1 December - Natural NZ Music Festival, Perth WA