Khruangbin - So We Won´t Forget
- NICK DUTFIELD
- Jul 2, 2020
- 3 min read
Proper Bandy Bands is what people my age are supposed to like, and maybe other aged people too. Imagine listening to the Rolling Stones when they sound as if they are looking at each other, listening to each other, playing together and bringing something extra out of each other – that´s Proper Bandy Band business and that´s what Khruangbin do. They have the sound, the look, the chemistry and the understanding of a Band.
I learnt this from the first video I saw of them on YouTube, a version of ´María También´ Live On KEXP[i], my other reaction was that Tarantino could spend a lifetime in Mexico and never come up with a more Tarantino in Mexico moment than ´María También.´ That was the big impact but at that point I had only registered a fraction of the band´s breadth. Gospel and Afghan culture form part of their origin story and let´s not ignore their name – Khruangbin, which is Thai. They also boast playlists that are said to be like spinning a musical globe that hones in on the tectonic rumbles of deep, frontier-straddling funk.
Having established their band credentials, it´s time to face the one towering feature of bandiness that they have shied away from – songs. Their previous albums are all instrumentals so the appearance of lyrics on tracks from the latest, Mordechai, has to be regarded as a departure. On ´So We Won´t Forget´ the lyrics float lightly over the gently looping setting. Atmosphere and emotion, which were previously the agenda for their instrumentals are extended to the arrival of words. There is a hint of nostalgia, with the lyrics mentioning paper for a start and even letters (Letters?). Time is there too ´hours´, ´minutes´, ´remember´ and ´forget.´ Loss is threatened and things are written down as protection. Any sadness is balanced by consolation and the true test of Proper Bandy Bands is passed as the elements play off each other and it´s all made to sound effortless. Drums, bass, guitar and vocals makes a equilateral three-piece with benefits.
THIS WEEK
Khruangbin – So We Won´t Forget
850,328 views since 18th May (Avge 136, 711 per week)
Last Week
Jockstrap – The City
Blog week views - 1,435 (Weekly avge 1,745)
EXTRAS
Khruangbin – María También (Live On KEXP)
Slightly pointless footnote
[i] Live On KEXP is one of those Live ON…. things that have seeped into You Tube like juice into sedimentary rocks. To me, they always feel American in ways that makes them slightly exotic, for fun I´ve toyed with invented names like Live From EXCF (Elk Creek X-Fest) or Live At DAXS (Domingo Avenue X-Show) in the past, but thinking about it now, my rock simile is forcing me to wonder if future internet archivists will be like geologists, speculating why the strata of Live From… sites leaves such a clean break in this cursed year, 2020. The day before lockdown, an elderly neighbour told me that St Roch (Roque in Spain and Rollox in Glasgow) was the top saint for relieving plagues and since then I´ve directed an occasional thought his way, a quiet one-to-one betrayal of my non-believing principals. Probably the makers of these Live From… videos deserve a special message to Roch, along with everyone in the US I guess. What an ordeal to have your efforts to spread music and taste disrupted completely and doubly, first by a rampaging virus and then exacerbated by a president who chooses to buttress his position with unscrupulously bashed fragments of truth, democracy, justice and peace. Well, I´ll miss the Live From… sites if they don´t reappear.
Maria description! Love it.