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Texas Duo Serve Up Much Anticipated Psychedelic / Rock/ Garage Funk & Soul LP Pressed On Ltd Edition Gold Vinyl -
Khruangbin’s fourth studio album, A La Sala (“To the Room” in Spanish), is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and doing so on your own terms. It continues the mystery and sanctity that is the key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark “Marko” Speer approach music. If 2020’s Mordechai, the last studio LP Khruangbin made without collaborators, was a party record that enhanced the band’s musical reputation far and wide, then A La Sala is the measured morning after. It’s a gorgeously airy record completed only in the company of the group’s longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It’s a window onto the bounties powering Khruangbin’s vision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A La Sala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind.
The trio’s collective musical DNA, the years spent constructing it in Houston’s local-meets-global cultural stew, ensures the band continues to sound like no one but itself. A cascade of crisp melodies emanates from Marko’s reverb-heavy electric, dancing gently around Laura Lee’s minimalist almost-dub bass triangles, while DJ’s drums serve as the tightened-up pocket and unwavering dance-floor on which all this movement takes place. Yet there’s a freshness to A La Sala’s instrumental interactivity, less concerned with getting further out than going deeper in, a profound desire to celebrate the world’s external wonders. Where prior albums strived towards music’s polyglot edges, such inquiries now sound like beloved intimacies. Here, Khruangbin’s sonic touch-points — whether spaghetti-western film scores (on “Fifteen Fifty-Three”), West African discos (on “Pon Pón”), G-funk fantasias (“Todavía Viva”), living room dancing moments (the first single, “A Love International”), or even ambient found-sounds (on “Farolim de Felgueiras and throughout the album”) — are ingrained characteristics. This is who they are! Unique and huge (and growing), ambitious and driven.
Khruangbin’s aspirations and commitment to playful creativity even extends to A La Sala’s vinyl packages, of which there will be seven distinctive covers and color-sets. Designed by the band using Marko’s multitude of travelog photos, the images are windows from the band’s living room onto a set of daydreams, scenes of impossible skies, external glances that illuminate what is going on inside. Each cover image comes with a matching color vinyl. These too are all about looking out and looking back, in order to better look ahead.
Please note the information is done on a artist keyword match and data is provided by LastFM.
Khruangbin (IPA: /ˈkɹʌŋbɪn/) is an American three-piece band from Houston, Texas, formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Johnson on drums. The trio's first single 'A Calf Born In Winter' was released in May 2014 by Late Night Tales offshoot Night Time Stories, and saw support from DJs Zane Lowe, Cerys Matthews, Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe and magazines as musically diverse as Test Pressing, For Folks Sake, i-D, The 405 and Ransom Note. 'The Infamous Bill' is an expanded offering of Khruangbin's exotic, individual sound. The EP's four tracks were recorded at their spritual home, a remote barn deep in the Texas countryside where Khruangbin's first rehearsals took place. Taking influence from 1960's Thai funk - Khruangbin literally translates to "Engine Fly" in Thai - the EP is steeped in the bass heavy, psychedelic sound of their inspiration, Tarantino soundtracks and surf-rock cool.
Mark and DJ's roots are in R&B, hip hop and gospel having played within the same gospel band for years. Both professional musicians, Mark began teaching Laura how to play bass in the summer of 2009. As such, Laura quickly developed a huge passion for the instrument and the aesthetic it brought to music she loved. Having worked studiously on developing her skills, both Mark and Laura were invited to tour with Ninja Tune's YPPAH supporting Bonobo across his 2010 American tour. The tour galvanised the two of them to start making music together more seriously, sowing the first seeds of Khruangbin, with DJ the natural go to for drums. Having kept in touch, Bonobo included Khruangbin's 'A Calf Born In Winter' on his 2013 'Late Night Tales' compilation. In addition to increasing the Stateside following the band has built, the release has helped Khruangbin in topping both the US & UK 'Last FM' fastest growing artists whilst 'A Calf Born In Winter' continues to be one of the most popular single downloads from the compilation.
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