While the band hails from Houston, World influences have always been front and center in Khruangbin’s mostly instrumental work, with sounds from around the world blending seamlessly to create a unique and defining soundscape that took the band around the world. In fact, it was the three-plus years on worldwide tours supporting the first two albums – including prestigious festival performances at Pitchfork, Coachella, Lockn’, Japan’s Fuji Rock, Roskilde in Denmark and many more – that gave bassist Laura Lee the perspective that launched Khruangbin toward the songs that appear on its third release, Mordechai, recently released on Dead Oceans.
After a frantic period of recording and touring to build a career, Lee and her Khruangbin bandmates, Mark Speer (guitar) and DJ Johnson (drums), were ready to slow down and put deliberate focus into creating the songs that would become Mordechai. Yet it was an innocent hiking trip with a recent friend (named Mordechai, hence the album title) and his family that gave her the perspective to free her mind; the perspective that she should look for joy in the process, instead of focusing on the final result, which lead her to an outpouring of words and the first Khruangbin album where most of the songs weren’t just soundscapes, but lush accompaniments to a compelling group of lyrical stories. Yes, Khruangbin sings on most of its new release!
The result is a beautiful, ethereal, funky, vibey collection of songs featuring stellar, sinewy guitar lines that emotionally complement the tales of love, memories, devotion and a range of feelings that gives Mordechai great depth, making it quite possibly the most artistically complete Khruangbin album to date. The album has already gone Top 5 on JBE’s Non-Comm Albums chart and the lead single, “Time (You And I),” is getting strong support on the commercial side from stations like KGSR, WDST, KBAC and WUIN.
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