LP Khruangbin A La Sala

The title makes it clear. A LA SALA (To the Room in Spanish), the fourth studio album by Khruangbin, is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and do so on your own terms. It extends the air of mystery and sanctity thats key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald DJ Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark Marko Speer approach music. Yet if 2020s Mordechai, the last studio album Khruangbin made without collaborators, was a party record whose ensuing post-lockdown tour enhanced the bands musical reputation far and wide, A LA SALA is the measured morning after. Its a gorgeously airy album made only in the company of the groups longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It is a porthole onto the bounties powering Khruangbins vision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A LA SALA scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind.