Khruangbin – A La Sala (LP, Dead Oceans)

A LA SALA (Spanish for “To the Room”) is Khruangbin’s fourth studio album. The first single ‘A Love International’ underlines the thoughtful and celebratory character of A LA SALA with its wistful vocals and a driving guitar and bass duet. After a decade spent cultivating an elusive yet extraordinary musical path, A LA SALA is both a nostalgic and purposeful step forward for Khruangbin – an outlook for a band that asks subtle questions about the surreal nature the representation of art and one’s own reality. The trio’s collective musical DNA and years spent in Houston’s local-meets-global cultural melting pot ensure the band sounds like none other than themselves. A cascade of crisp melodies emerges from Marko’s reverb-heavy electric guitar and dances gently around Laura Lee’s minimalist almost-dub bass triangles, while DJ’s drums serve as the foundation on which all these movements take place. Nevertheless, the instrumental interactivity of A LA SALA has a freshness that aims less to wander into the distance than to go into depth. Here are Khruangbin’s sonic points of contact – whether spaghetti western film music (on “Fifteen Fifty-Three”), West African disco (on “Pon Pon”), G-funk fantasies (“Todavia Viva”), living room dance moments (the first single, “A Love International”) or even ambient found sounds (emerging on “Farolim de Felgueiras” and throughout the album) – deeply rooted characteristics, unique and big (and growing), ambitious and committed. Khruangbin’s drive and commitment to playful creativity even extends to A LA SALA’s vinyl packaging, which will feature seven different covers and color sets worldwide. Conceived by the band using Marko’s numerous travel photos, the images are windows from the band’s living room to a series of daydreams, scenes of an impossible sky, views from outside illuminating what’s going on within. There is a color-matching vinyl version for each cover image. Here, too, it’s about looking outwards and looking back in order to be able to better look forward.