At The Speed Of Light

Kiwi quintet Kora have been world-beating for a little over a decade now, their infectious mish-mash of genres striking chords the planet over, and with good reason. These five are never wont to sit in the one spot, idly watching the world pass them by. No, they're far more comfortable investigating, exploring, evolving their sound, and we're all the better for it.

Case in point is their second record, Light Years, released late last year, a record that was (almost literally) a world away from their eponymous 2007 debut. Whereas Kora blended elements of reggae, funk and rock, Light Years invented its own genre, space funk (or alien funk), and relied heavily on an electronic foundation.

Such a sonic deviation, however, isn't as 'out there' as it may seem on paper. In the five years between records, Kora developed as a band, they evolved of course, and given they are so interested in the exploration of music, it's not too much of an odd prospect that they'd end up where they did. Speaking to Fran Kora shortly after the record was released last November, he opined that it was a natural progression, something backed up by fellow bass player, Richie Allen, this time around.

As Allen also states though, despite the fact their growth has been natural, it's not always charted territory. “Yeah, well it's always experimental,” he concurs. “And the good thing is, the next one, not even we know what to expect from the next one.”

And speaking to Allen, it's obvious that Kora are fully immersing themselves within this new direction, particularly in the live setting.

“It's been good,” he enthuses. “[I mean], there's more gear involved, like laptops and sequencers, for backing tracks and stuff, which has been interesting.” It's also interesting to query, still in the live setting, if as a result of the electronic nature of Light Years the band's older stuff has become more electronic, or if their new stuff has been affected by the more guitar-oriented material of their beginnings.

“The older stuff is still played exactly the same, we haven't changed that. But yeah, the newer stuff, we'll probably add a guitar in there, and there's a lot of bass playing and stuff along with the electronic – we use real bass lines.” This, no doubt, would offer up more diversity for the band.

“Yeah, yeah, that's actually quite good,” he agrees. “And it's been great to translate the studio album to the live [setting] with some jamming as well… it adds a lot of freedom to jam [in there].” Allen goes on to say that at the moment, around 40 per cent of a typical Kora set is improvised, something which is no doubt contributing to the free nature their live sets have always exhibited. It's also pleasing to note that even though space funk is the order of the day, the band's older material is still strong on its own, and is played in the manner it was created, which of course garnered the band its current rabid fanbase.

Even though Light Years is only approximately six months old (although older for the band themselves), it's exciting to hear that, as Allen stated, the band don't know how their next offering will end up sounding. But for now, they're still heavily immersed within this latest release. However, there are some samples and bass lines being written – constant writing as every good band does – so it's best right now to just buy the ticket and take the ride – Kora won't disappoint.