The Houston Trio Khruangbin

Khruangbin (pronounced kroong-bin) from Houston combines global influences into stunning psychedelic instrumentals. Listeners with extensive musical knowledge may enjoy playing musical trivia to identify which songs influence another by this trio.

Building blocks for their latest album, A La Sala (“To the Room”), came from elements found throughout their collective history.

Genres

Khruangbin – comprising Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar and Donald (DJ) Johnson on drums – have been creating extraordinary musical paths for nearly a decade now. Hailed as one of America’s premier live acts and unrivalled in groove, they often leave conversations regarding them with questions regarding pronunciation or genre classification.

The trio fuses surf, soul, funk and summery psych in an intuitively hypnotic and transcendent fashion, yet aren’t afraid to explore other musical territories either – such as their unique approach to world music and their use of environmental sounds as textures within their soundscapes – making their albums, as well as live shows so rich. Mordechai (2021) sees them expand upon their signature sound while exploring new ones as well.

Inspiration

As Khruangbin (which translates to “engine fly” or “airplane” in Thai) developed their psychedelic instrumentals, they began drawing inspiration from across global influences. Bassist Laura Lee Ochoa brought R&B and Gospel roots into her bass guitar playing; drummer Donald Johnson added rock/funk knowledge via Houston Gospel bands as a basis.

By translating their ideas into the expansive, rhythmic soundscapes of 2020’s Mordechai, they were able to create an airy, meditative space for further explorations. On their next album A LA SALA (which translates as “to the room”) they revisit this creative strategy for even greater rewards.

Collaborations

Khruangbin have become known for their signature hypnotic sounds and collaboration with vocalists from around the world, including Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Toure of Dead Oceans fame. You can hear an exclusive preview at their BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! show on August 4 at Prospect Park.

On 2020’s Mordechai, bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson Jr, and guitarist Marko Speer’s evocative instrumental melodies were more than sufficient to fill up space; but for A La Sala they scaled down further, creating an intimate and satisfying inward journey that proves equally expansive and rewarding.

This album opens with mournful spaghetti-western guitars sitting atop a slow-walking rhythmic groove of drums and bass, suggesting it was written to accompany dissolving credits as an unwitting gunslinger wanders a soul-weary desertscape. Later tracks such as “Farolim de Felgueiras” and “Les Petits Gris” add further atmosphere by featuring field recordings such as shoes on stone steps, cicadas in an open field and even faint music box hummings in order to complete their stories.

Live shows

Khruangbin, comprised of Houston-based bassist Laura Lee and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson – first came together through church gospel bands before creating their genre-defying trio known by its Thai name meaning “airplane”, reflecting their multi-national influences.

2020’s Mordechai album established the band‘s growing reputation, while A La Sala (“to the room” in Spanish) offers its measured aftermath. Reworking building blocks from their creative past (off-cuff recordings of vocal melodies, voice memos made at sound checks and long voyages, epiphanies) they created new sections, rhythms, and musical interactions with those elements from their past creative pursuits.

Khruangbin’s results reflect their album’s down-home aesthetic perfectly: from mid-tempo numbers like “Three From Two” and “May Ninth,” or the title track with its nods towards Bakersfield and by-the-riverside, to Bakersfield and by-the-riverside vibes on “Title Track,” their sound showcases Khruangbin’s commitment to American roots music as a source for their soundscape.