Karma times ahead

After more than two decades, Milton Keynes-based band Supakarma will release their self-titled debut album this August. Sammy Jones looks at the band’s journey to this point.

The end of the nineties was nigh. Britpop mania was over, and the Y2K bug was about to wreak global damage at the turn of the new Millennium.

Remember that?

In Milton Keynes a quartet of musicians were diligently crafting in the rehearsal room and didn’t care much about bugs or anything else. They were consumed by their creations; harnessing the best bits of an exploded genre, and giving their songs a brash, experimental indie rock edge. It was all sounding exciting.

The band (frontman Daniel Binks, guitarist Jamie Paul Morris, bassist Steven Sciberras and drummer Ben Hallett) soon took

Track by trackSupakarma in full

What Are You Waiting For?

It’s about resilience, determination, hope and faith. Behind the romantic idea of utopia on another plain, the underlying message in the song is that no matter what happens in life, somehow you’ve got to find the strength to take the punches and keep hitting back. It’s about survival.

Digital Vision

The title came first and the rest followed. Our guitarist, Jamie, thought the chord progression was off the wall and quite “Coxon-esque”... It’s a hedonistic play on technology at the dawn of the world wide web.

New Test Cannonball

A virtual object containing every traumatic event in life that most Homo sapiens could possibly imagine or endure.

their sounds out of the rehearsal space and into the live, cutting their teeth on the London circuit and making their mark at select festivals in the low countries.

They found favour with those dates, and their musical musings landed them an extended stay at top-flight studio, Great Linford Manor with esteemed producer Tony Platt (AC/DC, Bob Marley).

Everything was very nearly magnificent, until band friction led to the session unravelling. Instead of the promised robust release, an acrimonious split left the project unfinished and gathering dust.

Those tracks might well still be sitting on the shelf today, were it not for the devastating loss of guitarist Jamie, in 2019.

His untimely death reopened lines of communication between the remaining members, and where there had been discontent, there was a realisation that they had unfinished business, and the band have reconvened to deal with it.

“We decided we would finish the album as a tribute to Jamie and feel that even after all this time the music still has its own place out there in the musical void,” said Ben, “Once finally released others might stumble across it and

It takes no prisoners, it knows no boundaries and it does not discriminate.

Demons

In short, Demons is a psychological deep dive into the dark abyss of temptation.

The Way It Is

A true story about a broken man. When you find yourself face to face with tragedy and loss, the only thing left is hope and love.

You Could Be My Heroine

Originally referred to as ‘song two’ because it felt like the kind of track to put second in a set, purely because of its pace and raw energy. It’s a tale of redemption in search of salvation.

appreciate what we made. It just took a while.”

The elpee will be released on August 4, and the same night they’ll host a launch party at The Craufurd Arms in Wolverton. The bar side album listening party will begin at 9pm. Entry is free.

You’ll journey from the raw jagged postpunk guitars that air with ‘You Could Be My Heroine’ through the anthemic swagger of ‘The Way It Is’ to the delicately poised acoustic of ‘My Own Advice’, perfect for showcasing the range and fragility of Daniel’s voice, and the epic melancholic flower powered finale of ‘I Remember You’

It took two decades and a tragic turn of events to re-ignite the flame, but in these ‘Karma’ times the band have made good on their promise from years ago.

“I was pleasantly surprised when revisiting these songs at how fresh and punchy they still feel. We were able to give them a bit of a facelift in terms of the sound, but the raw energy needed little in the way of encouragement,” said Tony Platt, who was back for the production process, “I guess the band were somewhat ahead of their time!”

> Supakarma will be available as a limited edition on vinyl (300 copies) and available on all streaming platforms through Forte Distribution.

My Own Advice

A soul-bearing enigma wrapped up in an emotional riddle.

Calmer Coaster

It starts off with a kind of eerie hypnotic bass line and the opening guitar riff locks so rhythmically well, together they sound like the heartbeat of an engine room gathering momentum and it gradually morphs into this epic monster of a roller coaster full of dynamic twists and turns.

I Remember You (Say Goodbye)

A tribute to the new wave of aspiring musicians that emerged from the second summer of love in ’89 with a genuine swagger. A vision and a sense of destiny became apparent to the few that picked up a guitar and played while the rest of the raving acid house ‘baggies’ stood gazing at their shoes.