The 40 Watt Banana Peeled

The 40 Watt Banana, formed in 1968, was a unique band in New Zealand, the only group that ventured into the esoteric realm of Indo-Afro psychedelic music. “Peeled” includes their sought-after 45 from 1971 (the sitar-psych-dancer “Nirvana”) plus previously unreleased recordings full of sitar, tabla, sarod, tanpura, trumpet, recorder, effects, tape echo…
Formed by Kevin Clark and Dave Parsons, initially as a jazz combo playing in restaurants, they soon incorporated elements of Indian and African music to their sound, after some soul searching and spiritual experiences. The result was an atmospheric, spacey, improvised sound. In 1971, they released their only 45 for the HMV label. It featured a great sitar-psych track, “Nirvana”, similar to other psychedelic jazz-pop-funk experiments from the time such as “Mathar” by Dave Pike Set. But during the late 60s and early 70s, the band also recorded other stuff which has remained unreleased until now.