Khruangbin, a trio from Houston, Texas, who came together over a common love of 60s and 70s Thai funk, electric molam and "Shadow music" (Thai bands influenced by British instrumental band The Shadows), are landing in Bangkok for a rare performance this coming Sunday at EmQuartier.
If the Thai connection weren't unlikely enough (none of the band members are Thai), guitarist Mark Speer and drummer Donald Ray "DJ" Johnson met while serving as paid members of Rudy Rasmus' famed R&B/hip-hop/gospel band at St. John's Methodist Church, the same Houston church scene associated with Beyoncé and Solange Knowles.
Speer met bassist Laura Lee in 2007, and after performing together as a guitar-and-bass duo for a while, they were invited to join British music producer/DJ Bonobo on his 2010 tour of the States, along with Ninja Tune's Yppah.
Inspired by the Bonobo tour, Speer and Lee brought Johnson in on drums and formed Khruangbin. Lee came up with the band's name, which means "airplane" in Thai, while she was trying to learn Thai from Rosetta Stone lessons.
"I just liked the sound of it," she says in interviews.
Khruangbin crafted its bass-heavy, psychedelic, surf-meets-world-music sound profile in a draughty barn in the small town of Burton, Texas, population 300. Their first recording, A Calf Born In Winter, ended up on Bonobo's 2013 Late Night Tales compilation.
Their debut album, The Universe Smiles Upon You (2014), gathered a devoted following, including such prominent figures as punk godfather Iggy Pop and K-pop superstar Lee Hyori. They've since toured with Father John Misty, Tycho, Massive Attack and Chicano Batman, and played festivals like Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, SXSW and Thailand's own Wonderfruit.
The tour which brings the band to Bangkok this Sunday supports their second album, Con Todo El Mundo, released at the beginning of this year. Boasting Middle Eastern and Latin as well as Southeast Asian flavour profiles, the album has already sold out.
The band's success is all the more remarkable given the genre-defying music they play. A YouTube user commenting on a live performance summarised the ambience by writing: "This feels like you're dropping acid on a Mediterranean 1970s porn set."
Last week, I interviewed the band via email to learn more about their musical approach and how they discovered Thai music.
"Years ago, we stumbled on a music blog called Monrakplengthai and dove headfirst into this amazing music we had never heard before," said Speer.
"We instantly fell in love with Dao Bandon, Sutrak Aksonthong, Don Sornrabeab, Chantana Kittiyapan, Man City Lion, Onuma Singsiri, Phimpha Phonsuri and especially The Impossibles. It was so inspiring to hear this music that was both immediately familiar but also so different."
"We had an incredible time at Wonderfruit [December 2017]," said Lee. "Mark and I had been to Thailand before, but it was DJ's first time. Everyone was so warm and appreciative and curious about what we're doing with our music. For us, it was a real moment to perform in the country whose music has had such an impact on us."
Asked about the Middle Eastern influences on the new album, Speer says the band is always on the hunt to uncover new music around the world.
"It just happened we found a few pockets of music from that region. Googoosh was on repeat for a long while. Some others we love are Kourosh Yaghmei from Iran, The Rahbani Brothers from Lebanon, Al Massireen from Egypt, and Sezen Aksu from Turkey."
In other interviews, drummer Johnson has pointed out that regardless what country it's from, the music they're drawn to the most is funk-oriented, lo-fi tracks that popped up all over the world between the 60s and the 80s.
The album title, Con Todo El Mundo, which means "With All The World" in Spanish, is a tribute to Laura Lee's Mexican-American grandfather as well as the band's crate-digging, open-armed approach to global music sources.
As on Khruangbin's first album, most of the tracks are entirely instrumental, other than occasional wordless oohs and aahs chanted in the background. An exception, the tune Lady And Man, features a short section of lyrics including: "You're too angry, you're too fake, you're too reckless, you're too bothered," and "I could've been a doctor, could've been a lawyer, oh, come on, not that again!" which the band say was inspired by VHS movie tapes they ran in the background at their Burton barn while composing.
"On the farm where we record, there's no internet and a very limited selection of VHS tapes, so two movies we end up watching a lot are Romancing The Stone and Clueless," said Speer. The lyrics at the end of Lady And Man are inspired by on-screen arguments between the main characters in those movies.
Khruangbin concert review. .
Asked about the YouTube comment, Speer said: "Maybe it's the inclusion of strong feminine energy in the band. It's not just a bunch of dudes playing rock. There's a seductive gentleness to the music. It never hits you over the head or screams at you."
Or maybe it's the "oohs and aahs" in the background. Opening for Khruangbin on Sunday are two well-known Thai artists, Photo Sticker Machine and Summer Dress.
BAMM! -- Khruangbin -- Bangkok Show will be staged on Sunday at 9pm at Helix Garden, 5th floor, EmQuartier. Visit ticketmelon.com/live/bammbkk.
