Khruangbin share the song ‘May Ninth’ from their forthcoming new album A LA SALA. The wistful, mid-tempo track exudes the band’s signature warmth thanks to its American roots-inspired guitar lines and airy vocals — if you listen closely, you can actually hear birds singing in the background. It’s another example of how Khruangbin utilizes environmental sounds both natural and man-made as textures, and how A LA SALA achieves such interconnected set-and-setting-ness.
A LA SALA, Khruangbin’s first LP in four years, is out April 5 on Dead Oceans in partnership with Night Time Stories Ltd. The band previously shared ‘A Love International,’ a song illustrating the reflective, celebratory nature of A LA SALA with its heartfelt vocal flutterings underneath propulsive guitar and bass interplay.
From the get-go, Khruangbin’s journey has been emphatically its own: a sound and visual representation with few precedents, ignoring pop expectations, relying only on internal inspirations, and a multitude of visions. It’s a mindset of penetrating the self, connecting to the surrounding world, modeling your own life experiences. The building blocks then for A LA SALA’s 12 songs were jigsaw pieces found in Khruangbin’s creative past, parts of the band not lost, but not yet tapped into. Having stockpiled ideas originally set down as off-the-cuff recordings (voice-memos made at sound-checks, on long voyages, as absentminded epiphanies), they began fitting those pieces together in the studio for A LA SALA.
Over the last two years Khruangbin has remained unwavering in their musical vision, selling out shows at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre and London’s Alexandra Palace. They’ve released five live LPs showcasing their stage prowess – featuring storied guests such as Toro y Moi, Men I Trust and Nubya Garcia – collaborated with Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré honoring Vieux’s late father, Ali Farka Touré, with the album Ali highlighted everywhere from The New York Times and NPR (“labyrinthine fusion of dub, blues and Malian grooves,”), to GQ who says “there’s a placelessness to the band Khruangbin that, counterintuitively, gives them their gravity.” That same year the band released their second collaborative EP with Leon Bridges, the sultry, chart-topping Texas Moon, which arrived to widespread acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, Uproxx, Vulture, FADER while pushing the boundaries of psychedelic R&B.
A LA SALA TRACKLIST
- Fifteen Fifty-Three
- May Ninth
- Ada Jean
- Farolim de Felgueiras
- Pon Pón
- Todavía Viva
- Juegos y Nubes
- Hold Me Up (Thank You)
- Caja de la Sala
- Three From Two
- A Love International
- Les Petits Gris
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