Details

New Vinyl

656605165714

1. Fifteen Fifty-Three
2. May Ninth
3. Ada Jean
4. Farolim de Felgueiras
5. Pon Pn
6. Todava Viva
7. Hold Me Up (Thank You)
8. Caja de la Sala
9. Three From Two
10. A Love International
11. Les Petits Gris

Khruangbins fourth studio album, A La Sala (To the Room inSpanish), is an exercise in returning in order to go further, anddoing so on your own terms. It continues the mystery and sanctitythat is the key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer DonaldDJ Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark Marko Speer approach music.If 2020s Mordechai, the last studio LP Khruangbin made withoutcollaborators, was a party record that enhanced the bands musicalreputation far and wide, then A La Sala is the measured morningafter. Its a gorgeously airy record completed only in the companyof the groups longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimaloverdubs. Its a window onto the bounties powering Khruangbinsvision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A LaSala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy withthe future in mind.

The trios collective musical DNA, the years spent constructing itin Houstons local-meets-global cultural stew, ensures the bandcontinues to sound like no one but itself. A cascade of crispmelodies emanates from Markos reverb-heavy electric, dancinggently around Laura Lees minimalist almost-dub bass triangles,while DJs drums serve as the tightened-up pocket and unwaveringdance-floor on which all this movement takes place. Yet theres afreshness to A La Salas instrumental interactivity, less concernedwith getting further out than going deeper in, a profound desire tocelebrate the worlds external wonders. Where prior albums strivedtowards musics polyglot edges, such inquiries now sound likebeloved intimacies. Here, Khruangbins sonic touch-points whether spaghetti-western film scores (on Fifteen Fifty-Three),West African discos (on Pon Pn), G-funk fantasias (TodavaViva), living room dancing moments (the first single, A LoveInternational), or even ambient found-sounds (on Farolim deFelgueiras and throughout the album) are ingrainedcharacteristics. This is who they are! Unique and huge (andgrowing), ambitious and driven.

Khruangbins aspirations and commitment to playful creativityeven extends to A La Salas vinyl packages, of which there will beseven distinctive covers and color-sets. Designed by the bandusing Markos multitude of travelog photos, the images arewindows from the bands living room onto a set of daydreams,scenes of impossible skies, external glances that illuminate what isgoing on inside. Each cover image comes with a matching colorvinyl. These too are all about looking out and looking back, in orderto better look ahead.