It’s always fascinated me that “Tattva” was the song that broke Kula Shaker into the mainstream in the UK, if only because there’s not really a song there; it’s a chant with a guitar riff behind it, alternating with a simple verse with instrumentation lifted from “I Am The Walrus,” with only a guitar solo and bridge to break it out of the repetition (The single had an earlier version of the song on it, with the bridge absent; apparently it was added at the suggestion of producer John Leckie). That bridge is easily my favorite part of the song, as simple as it is; it starts at 2:31, and keeps up the glossy George Harrison retread aspect of the song while somehow adding a (tiny little) bit of extra depth, or at least variety. But, really; there’s nothing to “Tattva,” which makes it especially surprising that this song made the band into a success in the UK. Perhaps we were all ready for a modern George Harrison to listen to in between Oasis’ stabs at being both the modern Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan