I have come to KHRUANGBIN‘s music quite accidentally, thanks to a happy coincidence of YouTube algorithms. Although it is drastically different from my personal music preferences lately, it’s hard not to call their 2018 album Con Todo El Mundo a personal discovery. It seems like tons of other people just love this kind of chill Tarantinoesque music and the band obviously enjoys a whole lot of followers.
KHRUANGBIN hail from Houston, Texas and play mainly instrumental music that seems to draw inspirations from the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time when funk and classical psych rock ruled the airwaves, not only in America but also beyond the ocean.
The key to understanding KHRUANGBIN’s main vibe is precisely the influences of American music on distant regions of the world. This gives us the historical backdrop to the formation of something called “thai funk” – a curious and somewhat exotic Asian influenced funk/rock amalgam with quite characteristic means of expression. This is cited as the the main inspiration for KHRUANGBIN, given their thai name as well. You can hear all sorts of world music influences, woven with classic western rock’n’roll expressive tools such as guitar, bass & drums.
Many modern artists & bands still try to ride the “vintage” and a “revival” wave to the extent of whole genres sound and look like Summer of Love amateur Super 8 video footage.
In the KHRUANGBIN case this aesthetic is spot on, but not too irritating. Con Todo El Mundo is a wonderful album for a long car ride or a warm romantic evening soundtrack with a minimal amount of vocal interruptions. An intimate, fresh and hypnotic reading of the 60s & 70s era with references to more exotic musical destinations.