Khruangbin (pronounced Kroong-Bin)

Khruangbin first made headlines with their track featured on Bonobo’s Late Night Tales mix in 2013. That track cemented their place as one of the premier bands for creating a hypnotic atmosphere.

Khruangbin creates exquisite instrumental tracks that seamlessly accommodate funk subgenres from around the world, from Caribbean dub to Middle Eastern funk and beyond. Their distinctive touch is often referred to as Khruangbin vibes.”

Origins

Khruangbin, the Houston-based trio pronounced “kroong-bin,” has spent more than a decade creating exceptional musical pathways and now stands at an inflection point: 2024 marks both marker and pivot: they will perform in larger, more iconic spaces than ever before, staging shows that push creative limits unique to them alone.

Khruangbin has taken steps in their newest album A La Sala to focus their explorations more inwards, retreating from audiences’ expectations and searching for an inwards-looking sound that encompasses longing for home while celebrating journeying. A La Sala is comprised of ideas collected over years: ideas captured during soundchecks or long journeys; absentminded epiphanies or vocal memos that come to them without much planning on purpose or on long travels – culminating in their most refined, exotic, and distinctive music yet.

Influences

Khruangbin (Thai for “airplane”) began by collecting diverse influences for their music: from 1960s and ’70s Thai funk, spaghetti Western film scores, Bakersfield country music, Jamaican dub, G-funk.

Mark Speer on guitar, Laura Lee Ochoa on bass and Donald Johnson on drums combined their elements into seamless instrumentals. From dreamy psychedelia of their fourth album Mordechai to African highlife in their EPs with Leon Bridges, this group created a global soundscape through crisp melodies, reverb-heavy electric guitars and airtight drums.

Khruangbin stands out in an age when songs tend to be short and filled with words, by championing instrumentals that speak more honestly than ever could through lyrics. Their work has won them praise from tastemakers like Bonobo, Questlove and Tom Ravenscroft; additionally their albums have received critical acclaim from Test Pressing, For Folk’s Sake and i-D.

Styles

Khruangbin (pronounced kruang-bin) of Houston has been delighting audiences for more than a decade with their blend of global influences into psychedelic instrumentals. Comprised of Laura Lee Ochoa on bass and guitar, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Johnson Jr on drums – they have amassed an immense following thanks to their distinct musical stylings and retro aesthetic, including their trademark black wigs seen throughout promotional photos.

Johnson’s deep-grooving drumming and Ochoa’s mesmeric bass lines create an intoxicating musical blend reminiscent of 1970s Thai psychedelic soul or Spanish flamenco, though its exact identity remains elusive. Listeners can tune into subtle instrumental shifts that transition seamlessly across genres and textures without being limited by lyrics.

They achieve it all without much apparent effort, and there’s an effortless quality to their grooves that resists emotional drama and ego-driven angst seen in modern pop songs. Perhaps that comes as no surprise coming from a group that formed out of Houston – the state’s center for world cultures and an ideal home for musicians comfortable incorporating elements from across cultures into their sound.

Albums

Khruangbin have achieved global earthiness while recording and writing their music from a barn in rural Texas, transcending any genre idioms. Their debut release was The Infamous Bill EP in 2014 and their highly-anticipated debut album The Universe Smiles Upon You followed soon thereafter.

On their 2020 album Hasta el Cielo, the band explored dub reggae and global influences more directly than in their earlier work; specifically citing Monrakplengthai Blog as an influence. Sonorous hand percussion reminiscent of Afro-Caribbean traditions was present alongside haunting string ornamentation reminiscent of Ali Farka Toure’s seventies proto-zouk music on this record.

Khruangbin and A La Sala’s 2024 album A La Sala takes an intimate, minimal approach to their musical palette. Crafted solely within the studio with minimal overdubs, this gorgeously airy record serves as an insight into Khruangbin’s vision, offering insight and fueling up for what lies ahead in terms of creativity and innovation.