Khruangbin – Global Earthiness Meets Stellar Psychedelic Instrumentals

Khruangbin (Thai for “engine fly”) made waves after Bonobo featured them on Late Night Tales mix feature and their subsequent EPs, where their music seamlessly combined global influences into incredible psychedelic instrumentals.

Mordechai was an exuberant party record; A La Sala serves as its sober counterpart.

Origins

Khruangbin – bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, guitarist Mark Speer and drummer Donald Johnson from Houston – are one of the most critically-acclaimed instrumental outfits of recent times. These three Houstonians combine a natural global earthiness in their music that stems from their shared love of crate-digging and diverse upbringing to form Khruangbin’s sound, drawing influences from 60s/70s Thai Funk (featured on 2015 debut album The Universe Smiles Upon You), jukebox soul West African Funk, dub and hip-hop to form this impressive trio.

Con Todo El Mundo sees the trio returning to the strategy that laid the groundwork of their early work; seeding each track with field recordings. As a result, their songs take on narrative forms not inspired by cinematic storytelling, but more by vivid sketches from daily life that vibrate off the page.

Musical influences

Khruangbin first gained global exposure with an inclusion in Bonobo’s Late Night Tales compilation in 2013. Their mesmeric grooves won them an audience and an album deal with Bonobo’s nighttime label Night Time Stories.

While Laura Lee Ochoa, Mark Speer and Donald Johnson Jr have taken an eclectic approach to music, their genre-defying sound doesn’t stem from copying songs or styles from around the globe; rather they use global influences as inspiration for creating original work.

Con Todo El Mundo, Khruangbin’s sophomore release, excels at crafting music inspired by personal experiences such as love and loss. While still predominantly instrumental, songs such as ‘People Everywhere (Still Alive)’ and their most recent single ‘White Gloves’ demonstrate Khruangbin’s growing fascination with using vocals as another instrument – an affirmation of their willingness to explore while still maintaining the sense of home that has long been central to their sound.

Technological developments

One would never expect that one of the biggest alt-rock breakthroughs of recent times would come from an instrumental trio from Houston, Texas with an impossible-to-pronounce name – but Khruangbin have defied expectations to become festival favorites and critical darlings, boasting an ever-increasing fan base.

2020’s Mordechai saw Khruangbin begin experimenting with vocals for the first time, and their latest release A La Sala serves as an exercise in expanding and refining an original creative strategy that uniquely represents them.

Scott Dungate, an advertising creative-turned-director responsible for their two award-winning videos, says that he was attracted to working with this band due to their warm sensibility and global music influence. Scott also appreciates their unique sound which conjures images of water or space travel – this was ideal for A Love International’s visuals, which follow a young local man as he attempts to win over his ideal partner on a boat just off a beach while being chased by local children.

Live performance

After releasing three EPs and their debut album The Universe Smiles Upon You in 2015, The Collective hit the festival scene. Working closely with Leon Bridges and Chicano Batman during 2015 helped establish their strong live following that has since formed the basis of A La Sala album release.

Khruangbin takes their creative process one step further with A La Sala, using ideas accumulated over years as spontaneous recordings (voice memos from sound checks or long road trips, random thoughts that come to them while driving or daydreaming) and then reworked into songs.

The result is a soothing suite of music designed to relax after an exciting day of exploration, drifting out to desert skies or looking upon Kodachrome vistas. Their new album shifts away from their previous instrumental-based tracks by including vocals as a new feature – marking an interesting shift away from instrumental-dominated releases.