BY Jamie Robash
photo by Mary Kang
For plenty of psych bands, any musical suffix that you can think of (rock, funk, pop, jazz, rap, etc.) can be outfitted to them like musical Mr. Potato Heads. But for all of those psych bands out there, none swim in the genre’s waters with such little flair and such maximum coolness as Houston trio Khruangbin. With just two albums (2015’s The Universe Smiles Upon You and last year’s stunning follow-up Con Todo El Mundo) under their hand-crafted belt buckles, the band has brought together a vast array of world musical styles — from Brazil to the Middle East to the folk music of the Orient as well as funk and soul from the New World — and bowed it into their own wholly unique style. With the majority of Khruangbin’s oeuvre being instrumental, their set offers the perfect atmosphere for the inebriated and the sober to be as one.
