Khruangbin – “Mary Always”
The Houston trio Khruangbin have made a name for themselves by developing their own psychedelic form of instrumental funk. They play instruments, but they work like crate-digging producers, introducing new sounds from different global traditions — obscure soul and psychedelia from Vietnam and Thailand and Spain and the Middle East. And now they’re increasing their scope again, taking in the Jamaican tradition of dub reggae. Last year, the band released their album Con Todo El Mundo, which has made the inescapable on the summer-festival landscape. And this summer, as Pitchfork points out, they’ll follow it with Hasta El Cielo, a dub version of that same album.
Khruangbin have messed around with dub before, tweaking their own tracks in vinyl B-sides. But on Hasta El Cielo, they’ll reimagine their entire LP, reworking all the tracks in new versions. And it’ll also include a pair of bonus dubs from Jamaican producer Scientist. By way of announcing the album, they’ve shared “Mary Always,” a new version of the Con Todo El Mundo single “Maria También.” Below, you can listen to both “Mary Always” and “Maria También,” and you can read what the band has to say about the album.
In a press release, Khruangbin say:
For us, Dub has always felt like a prayer. Spacious, meditative, able to transport the listener to another realm. The first dub albums we listened to were records mixed by Scientist featuring the music of the Roots Radics. Laura Lee learned to play bass by listening to Scientist Wins the World Cup. His unique mixing style, with the emphasis on space and texture, creates the feeling of frozen time; it was hugely influential to us as a band. To be able to work alongside Scientist, a legend in the history of dub, is an honor. This is our dub version of Con Todo El Mundo.
Hasta El Cielo is out 7/12 on Dead Oceans/Night Time Stories.