Yes, the beginning of the year means the avalanche of “Best of…” lists from me. This year’s will include singles, albums, and albums of the last five years. Unfortunately, the only concert I got to this year was seeing BODEGA and The Wants in Chicago. It was a good gig, so at least the one show I attended was a blast (even though I might’ve caught a mild strain of COVID-19 there).
Let’s get on with the singles, shall we?
#15: October and the Eyes – “All My Love”
Good heavens, what a sexy track. This cut from October and the Eyes‘ excellent debut album, Dogs and Gods, instantly brought to mind Dum Dum Girls, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees – but somehow with more sweaty lovemaking.
#14: Khruangbin – “Time (You and I)”
This track off Mordechai is so funky you can hardly believe it. Listening to this while walking will instantly put a strut into your step.
#13: The Chats– “Pub Feed”
Coming from High Risk Behaviour, his is one of the most fun punk tracks I’ve heard all year. It’s brash, brazen, and a salute to eating and boozing in pubs. What’s not to like?
#12: Kelly Lee Owens – “Night”
This is one of two Kelly Lee Owens’ songs from Inner Song that made my top 15 singles of 2020. This one, like pretty much anything else she puts out there, almost makes me want to throw my digital turntables in the trash because, good grief, why should I even bother?
#11: Too Free – “No Fun”
This Washington D.C. band came out of nowhere for me and, like Ms. Owens, dropped two of my top 15 tracks of 2020. This one, despite its title, is a lot of fun.
Who makes the top 10? Come back tomorrow to find out.
When asked to make their own LateNightTalescompilation, Khruangbin decided to make it as much a showcase of international talent as possible. The result is a luxurious musical trip around the globe.
Opening track “Illuminations” by Devadip Carlos Santana and Turiya Alice Coltrane is like the opening theme to an exotic romance / adventure film with it’s luscious harp strings, playful violins, and simple piano and guitar chords. “I Know That (When the Spring Time Comes)” by Brilliantes Del Vuelo is robotic dub with thick bass, reverbed hand percussion, and vocals that sound like a Star Wars droid. “Khushi” by Nazia Hassan is Middle Eastern disco with neon synths and a slick hand percussion beat.
Kelly Doyle‘s “DRM” is full of thumping electro-bass and fun, slightly off-kilter beats. The bass gets fatter on Sanullim‘s “Don’t Go” – a track that will go directly onto your disco and / or funk playlists. Maxwell Udoh‘s “I Like It (Don’t Stop)” is more slick disco and David Marez‘s “Enséñame” has big brass horns that Portishead would love to sample and sharp 1970’s Spanish love song vocals.
Gerald Lee‘s “Can You Feel the Love (Reprise)” is pure 1970s bedroom rock with sultry female vocals (“Here we are, sitin’ with one another, so alive and so free…”). Justine and the Victorian Punks have a pillow talk conversation over a sweet groove that would be perfect for strutting your stuff down a runway. George Yanagi and Nadja Band then saunter into the room with a Japanese slow jam that should be on any turntable in the Land of the Rising Sun if you plan on any nocturnal mixers there.
Russian lounge jazz follows that. Khruangbin slide into the mix next with a cover of Kool and the Gang‘s “Summer Madness” that is so smooth that you almost slip on it as it oozes out of your speakers and settles on the floor around you. Paloma San Basilio‘s “Contigo” has playful female vocals backed with R&B bass and wicked high hat work. The horn section on the Roha Band‘s “Yetikimt Abeba” is top-notch, knowing when to move to the front and when to stay out of the way of the vocals and effortless beat. The album ends with a spoken word piece by Tierney Malone and Geoffrey Muller. It’s a love poem that sounds like it’s from space (and, after all, much of the poem is about the speaker chasing after his love who has left the Earth) with simple banjo plucks and space transmission beeps.
It’s a lovely compilation and one that will make you seek out a lot of these artists, as any compilation should do. Hats off to Khruangbin for putting it together for us.
Named after a friend of the band, Khruangbin‘s newest album, Mordechai, continues their string of excellent funk / jazz / dub / world music records.
They waste no time in getting to the funk on the first track, “First Class,” with Laura Lee‘s superb bass line backed by Donald Johnson‘s Chex Mix-crisp drums and Mark Speer‘s guitar that sounds like a chattery ghost. “That’s life. If we had more time, we could live together,” Lee sings on “Time (You and I)” – a groovy track that deals with impermanence – a subject many find frightening, but Khruangbin remind us is a beautiful thing. Lee’s vocals on it, and throughout Mordechai, are some of the clearest Khruangbin have ever released. It’s a nice change. I also must mention Johnson’s disco high-hat work throughout the track. It will make you turn your head and say, “Daaaamn!”
“Connaissais de Face” has Lee and a gentleman (Speer?) chatting about old friends and lovers while a happy, sexy jazz tune plays behind them. “Father Bird, Mother Bird” brings in Spanish flavor to Speer’s guitar, providing him with a great instrumental showcase for his talent and those pure tones that he makes sound effortless.
Lee’s vocals on “If There Is No Question” come at you like soft breezes across a veranda across from a New Delhi disco. “You’re wild, but you’re not crazy,” she repeats like a mantra. “Pelota” has Lee singing in Spanish and having a blast doing it and playing a sweet bass groove. “One to Remember” is another mostly instrumental track that is downright hypnotizing.
“Dearest Alfred” has some of Johnson’s snappiest drumming and Lee’s sexiest vocals. “So We Won’t Forget” has a groove that makes you want to dance down the street and not care who’s watching or what might be going on around you. The album ends with the snappy instrumental “Shida,” sending us out on a fun note.
Khruangbin are batting .1000 right now, and I don’t see them missing any pitches soon. If you need something to pick you up during self-isolation, this album’s for you. It’s for all of us.
“Through textures of funk, disco and Middle Eastern avant-garde, ‘Mordechai’ is a nostalgic LP that explores human memory. ‘Dearest Alfred’ lionizes the letters that Lee’s grandfather would write to his twin brother, and ‘If There Is No Question’ recalls the gospel songs Speer and Johnson would perform in church. On ‘Shida,’ the album’s sultry closer, Khruangbin turns its attention to the early 1980s, bringing elements of Sade to mind, with gentle vocal sighs floating along the fringes and ethereal guitar chords pinned to the back of the mix.” — The New York Times
“From the French New Wave sounds to ’70s get-down grooves like ‘So We Won’t Forget,’ it looks to be further evidence of the group’s restless creative muse paying off.” — The A.V. Club, “albums we can’t wait to hear in June”
“Travel and discovery through music has always been at the center of what Khruangbin creates, and Mordechai promises to be another step in the voyage.” — Paste, “The 10 Albums We’re Most Excited About in June”
Khruangbin – the trio of LauraLeeOchoa (bass), MarkSpeer (guitar), and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums) – present new single, “Pelota,” alongside its accompanying video, directed by Hugo Rodrigues Rodriguez, written by AlvaroSotomayor and produced by GlassworksCreativeStudio. The track is off of their highly-anticipated new album, Mordechai, out next Friday, June 26th on DeadOceansin association with Night Time Stories. “Pelota” follows the “bright, soothing” (RollingStone) “So We Won’t Forget” and lead single “Time (You and I).” “A Texan band with a Thai name singing a song in Spanish, loosely based on a Japanese movie,” says Khruangbin of the track, which opens with a flurry of guitar and Ochoa, Speer, and Johnson’s sun-tinged unison vocals.
Mordechai comes two years after the release of Khruangbin’s beloved and acclaimed breakthrough, 2018’s Con Todo El Mundo, and was preceded earlier this year by TexasSun, the group’s collaborative EP with LeonBridges. As a first for the mostly instrumental band, Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it.
In conjunction with the upcoming release of Mordechai, Khruangbin have also relaunched AirKhruang, their popular flight playlist generator tool that gives fans a platform to enjoy their music curation when travel is not possible. “Shelter In Space” sends listeners on a musical voyage from the safety of their homes by utilizing Spotify’s music attributes to generate custom playlists set for a user-chosen activity and duration.
Khruangbin – the trio of LauraLeeOchoa (bass), MarkSpeer (guitar), and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums) – release new single, “So We Won’t Forget,” a track from their forthcoming album, Mordechai, out June26th on Dead Oceans, in association with Night Time Stories. In conjunction with today’s announcement, the band also share the new single’s accompanying video, directed by ScottDungateand co-produced by Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo x Nakama. Following lead singe / video “Time (You and I),” “one of the most immediately likable things that the band has put out” (Stereogum), the lilting “So We Won’t Forget” finds Ochoa filling her apartment with memories she’s scrawled on Post-Its to prevent them slipping away. Over soothing, guitar and light-stepping percussion, the band’s honeyed voices urge in unison: “call me what you want // call me what you need // words don’t have to say // keep it to myself.”
“Memory is a powerful thing,” says Khruangbin. “Now more than ever it’s important to tell the people you love that you love them, so that they don’t forget.”
In conjunction with “So We Won’t Forget,” Khruangbin are pleased to announce the relaunch of AirKhruang, their popular flight playlist generator tool that gives fans a platform to enjoy their music curation when travel is not possible. “Shelter In Space” sends listeners on a musical voyage from the safety of their homes by utilizing Spotify’s music attributes to generate custom playlists set for a user-chosen activity and duration.
Mordechai comes two years after the release of Khruangbin’s beloved and acclaimed breakthrough, 2018’s Con Todo El Mundo, and was preceded earlier this year by TexasSun, the group’s collaborative EP with LeonBridges. As a first for the mostly instrumental band, Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it.
The band’s ever-restless ear sees them pulling reference points from Pakistan, Korea, and West Africa, incorporating strains of Indian chanting boxes and Congolese syncopated guitar. But more than anything, Mordechai is a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that has nurtured them, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night. It is a snapshot taken along a larger journey—a moment all the more beautiful for its impermanence. And it’s a memory to revisit again and again, speaking to us now more clearly than ever.
Khruangbin, the Houston-based group comprised of bassist LauraLeeOchoa, guitarist MarkSpeer, and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, are pleased to announce their new album, Mordechai, out June26th on Dead Oceans, in association with Night Time Stories. Mordechai comes two years after the release of their beloved and acclaimed breakthrough, 2018’sCon Todo El Mundo, and was preceded earlier this year by TexasSun, the group’s collaborative EP withLeonBridges. Today, they present the vibrant, Felix Heyes & Josh R.R. King-directed video for Mordechai’s lead single, “Time (You and I)”.
Khruangbin has always been multilingual, weaving far-flung musical languages like East Asian surf-rock, Persian funk, and Jamaican dub into mellifluous harmony. As a first for the mostly instrumental band, Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it. And it all started with them coming home.
By the summer of 2019, Khruangbin had been on tour for nearly three-and-a-half years, playing to ever-expanding audiences across North and South America, Europe, and southeast Asia in support of both Con Todo El Mundo and their 2015 debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You. They returned to their farmhouse studio in Burton, Texas, ready to begin work on Mordechai. But they were also determined to slow down, to take their time and luxuriate in building something together.
It’s a lesson Lee had recently learned with the help of a new friend, a near-stranger who had reached out when she was feeling particularly unmoored, inviting her to come hiking with his family. That day, as they’d all made their way toward the distant promise of a waterfall, Lee had felt a dawning clarity about the importance of appreciating the journey, rather than rushing headlong toward the next destination. When they reached the waterfall at last, Lee’s friend urged her to jump, a leap she likens to a baptism. As she did, he screamed her name—her full name, the one she’d recently taken from her grandfather. In that instant, Laura Lee Ochoa was reborn. She emerged feeling liberated, grateful for what her friend had shown her. His name was Mordechai.
Ochoa’s rejuvenation found its expression in words—hundreds of pages’ worth, which she’d filled over a self-imposed day of silence. As Khruangbin began putting together the songs that would make up Mordechai, discovering in them spaces it seemed like only vocals could fill, they turned to those notebooks. Khruangbin had experimented with lyrics before, but this time Ochoa had found she had something to say. Letting those words ring out gave Khruangbin’s cavernous music a new thematic depth.
Chief among those themes is memory—holding onto it, letting it go, naming it before it disappears. The sun-dappled disco of lead single “Time (You And I)” evinces the feeling of a festival winding down to its final blowout hours. Its accompanying video features comedian Stephen K. Amos and Lunda Anele-Skosana. The duo wander around London, placing singular sandcastles throughout the city’s various scenery.
Musically, the band’s ever-restless ear saw them pulling reference points from Pakistan, Korea, and West Africa, incorporating strains of Indian chanting boxes and Congolese syncopated guitar. But more than anything, Mordechai became a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that had nurtured them, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night. It is a snapshot taken along a larger journey—a moment all the more beautiful for its impermanence. And it’s a memory to revisit again and again, speaking to us now more clearly than ever.
Mordechai Tracklist: 1. First Class 2. Time (You and I) 3. Connaissais de Face 4. Father Bird, Mother Bird 5. If There is No Question 6. Pelota 7. One to Remember 8. Dearest Alfred 9. So We Won’t Forget 10. Shida
Psychedelic jazz rockers Khruangbinand soul crooner Leon Bridges have come together to create a lovely four-song EP called Texas Sun. It’s a tribute to their home state and the reduction of the self that can happen if you spend a lot of time in the American southwest.
The title track opens the EP and begins with country acoustic guitar before Mark Speer‘s distinctive guitar sound comes in as a perfect match with Bridges’ vocals about driving along warm Texas highways at dusk. Speer puts down some romantic charm on “Midnight,” so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if the track has scored him a hundred dates by now. Plus, Laura Lee‘s bass groove on it is as seductive as the devil.
Speaking of grooves, the one cooked up by Ms. Lee and drummer Donald Johnson on “C-Side” is so slick that you should probably put a “Caution: Slippery Floor” sign in your living room when you play it. The EP ends with “Conversion,” which brings in some gospel touches to Bridges’ vocals about finding freedom in love.
This EP is a steal at a mere four bucks and a nice way to relax for a little while as you deal with the last days of winter.
“This is as much an atmosphere as a song, warm and leisurely and insinuating.” — The New York Times
“…a meditative, twangy song that blends the band’s Thai-funk proclivities with Bridges’ rootsy vocals.” — RollingStone
“…a sun-baked, languid rock song that coasts on Bridges’ smooth vocals.” — Pitchfork, The Most Anticipated Albums of 2020
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges will release TexasSun, their forthcoming collaborative EP, on February 7th via Dead Oceans, in partnership with Columbia Records and Night Time Stories Ltd. Following the EP’s titletrack, a slow rolling song about the pull of the unique Texas landscape, they today offer its second single, “C-Side,” a shimmering track comprised of wah-wah guitar lines, burbling Latin polyrhythms, and soft vibraphone. Stream “C-Side” below.
Their first time writing with a vocalist, Texas Sun finds Khruangbin—comprised of LauraLee (bass), MarkSpeer (guitar), and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums)—tailoring their exotic funk to Bridges’ soulful melodies. On the EP, these Texas natives meet up somewhere in the mythical nexus of the state’s past, present, and future—a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. The state’s music is as varied and wild as its geography, producing Southern rap pioneers GetoBoys and UGK, lysergic trailblazers The 13th Floor Elevators, and genres-unto-themselves like St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Beyoncé. TexasSun lives here too, a record that calls equally to the chopped-and-screwed hip-hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, to those who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso, to the Austin acid-dropping art school kids.
Texas Sun started on the road and wrapped up in the studio. Both Bridges and Khruangbin had been touring nonstop behind their acclaimed sophomore LPs when their paths converged for a joint North American tour in 2018, a run of shows stretching from Los Angeles to New York. Although both of their musical lanes were slightly different, they shared a dusty, laid back vibe. When a Khruangbin session yielded a song that seemed like it might pair well with Bridges’ voice, the band sent it over. Bridges returned the track with his vocals the very next day. They all soon decamped to the studio with engineer SteveChristensen, hoping to make it into a B-side. But everything flowed so naturally, it was obvious this would be something bigger, leading to TexasSun.
We’re into the top 20 albums from the year that I heard and reviewed. Let’s do this.
#20 – Blackwater Holylight – Veils of Winter
Blending goth, psychedelia, and doom, Blackwater Holylight crafted one of the coolest and creepiest records of the year. Witches coven vocal harmonies and cosmic horror synths roll along like fog across a moor and draw you into what at first sounds like the end of your mortal coil but turns out to be a pretty neat party.
#19 – Khruangbin – Hasta El Cielo
Khruangbin’s Con Todo El Mundowas already amazing, but then they released this dub version of it, and it’s just as good. It’s richly layered and probably the best chill-out record of 2019.
#18 – Comacozer – Mydriasis
Be sure to check out these guys if you’re a fan of dwarf star matter-heavy stoner metal. Comacozer’s Mydriasis consists of only four tracks, but they add up to enough time for a full album. They take delight in exploring long jams, cosmic highways, and hanging out with ancient gods.
#17 – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Infest the Rats’ Nest
Speaking of heavy, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard decided to release two albums this year. The first was Fishing for Fishies (#26 on this list), and the second was this thrash metal album. Like “Fishies,” it’s also heavy on environmental themes and even heavier on shredding. They pretty much did it as a lark and it ended up being one of the best metal albums of the year.
#16 – Chromatics – Closer to Gray
Everyone was expecting the long-awaited (and long since destroyed) Dear Tommy, but we got Closer to Grayinstead. It’s pretty much a giallo film soundtrack with plenty of sexy synthwave, Ruth Radelet’s haunting vocals, and a stunning cover of “The Sounds of Silence.”
The top 15 are coming up later today. Stick around!
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges are pleased to announce Texas Sun, their forthcoming collaborative EP out February 7th on Dead Oceans, in partnership with Columbia Records and Night Time Stories Ltd. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they present its title track. Over a slowly rolling backbeat and strums of flamenco-style guitar, Bridges sings of the pull the unique Texan landscape can have on you, even from miles away. It’s a stunner of an opener, kicking off the EP’s own journey through homesick reminiscences, backseat romances, and late-night contemplations.
Texas Sun is the kind of record made for listening with the windows down and the road humming softly beneath you. Their first time writing with a vocalist, Texas Sun finds Khruangbin—formed of LauraLee on bass, MarkSpeer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums—tailoring their exotic funk to Bridges’ soulful melodies. On the EP, these Texas natives meet up somewhere in the mythical nexus of the state’s past, present, and future—a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. The state’s music is as varied and wild as its geography, producing Southern rap pioneers GetoBoys and UGK, lysergic trailblazers The 13th Floor Elevators, and genres-unto-themselves like St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Beyoncé. TexasSun lives here too, a record that calls equally to the chopped-and-screwed hip-hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, to those who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso, to the Austin acid-dropping art school kids. All of these things overlap on Texas Sun in a multicolored melange, purple hues as vivid and unpredictable as one of the state’s rightfully celebrated sunsets.
“We try not to have too much of an intention, because it gets in the way of what the music wants to do,” Lee says. “If you just let the music do what it’s supposed to do, it will reveal itself. We tried to take that same approach with Leon. For us, it was opening up our world to have another person in it. But all of it feels like Texas to me.”
TexasSun started on the road and wrapped up in the studio. Both Bridges and Khruangbin had been touring nonstop behind their acclaimed sophomore LPs when their paths converged for a joint North American tour in 2018, a run of shows stretching from Los Angeles to New York. Although both of their musical lanes were slightly different, they shared a dusty, laid back vibe. When a Khruangbin session yielded a song that seemed like it might pair well with Bridges’ voice, the band sent it over. Bridges returned the track with his vocals the very next day. They all soon decamped to the studio with engineer Steve Christensen, hoping to make it into a B-side. But everything flowed so naturally, it was obvious this would be something bigger, leading to TexasSun.
“Big sky country, that’s what they call Texas,” Lee says. TexasSun effortlessly evokes the feeling of being behind the wheel, nothing but that big sky before you, your mind set free to wander. It’s a sound that should keep you good company on your own winding roads, wherever they may lead, and always back home.
