Bananagun - "Why Is The Colour of The Sky?", coming from down under

Australia’s Bananagun started getting noticed as soon as their first singles approached our ears. Then, in 2020, debut LP The True Story Of Bananagun played a considerable role in getting writers and readers through the grey and gloom of lockdown. So much so, in fact, that it ended up being crowned as our album of the year. It was a collage of songs painted in day-glo colours, funky psychedelia tinged with Tropicalia, Afrobeat and the occasional stroke of exotica. But listening to Bananagun means knowing that their music is ever evolving, in a constant state of flow and discovery.

To nobody’s surprise, over the past four years band members have not sat back and recycled the same musical ideas. Why Is The Colour of The Sky? is a fascinating departure from the early Bananagun sound, one that follows frontman/songwriter/multi- instrumentalist Nick van Bakel’s reckoning with challenging life events and the busy soul seeking that followed. This is a more pensive, searching Bananagun we’re hearing. Not to say that the sunshine-pop elements are completely discarded (they’re brought to the fore on the airy ‘Hippopotamusic’], but the new songs take time to appreciate clouds, too.

Freedom is still the catalyst of Bananagun’s music. Why Is The Colour Of The Sky?turns its attention towards jazz and psychedelia’s more abstract, avant-garde declinations. Strongly percussion-minded and thoroughly groovy, it appears to be less immediate than its predecessor. But it possibly makes for an even more immersive, elegant and surprising listen, one that favours the spiritual and the inscrutable. It’s full of memorable moments ("Free Energy", "Children Of The Man"), yet it's better savoured as a whole. 

Sonically, Bananagun have never been so in line with a ’60s mindset - although it’s not the “obvious” ’60s these songs conjure. In a way, Why Is The Colour Of The Sky? could be considered a spiritual heir to The Free Spirits’ ground-breaking 1966 outing Out Of Sight And Sound, a perfectly 2024 update on the more inventive sonic quests (from The Free Design to Anthem Of The Sun) of the space age.