Music That Gets You High: 'Mordechai' by Khruangbin is a Calm River Flow
Laura Lee & Khruangbin are a Cool River Current
Moving Under a Shade Tree on New Album “Mordechai”.
Khruangbin. A word that sounds like a game you play with paddles or like, a thrift store for birds. Khruangbin. Yeah, I know it means “airplane”. That’s the literal length of my Khruangbin research. I know almost nothing about their music, however prolific, and that’s why this is a great time to get educated with a review of Khruangbin’s new album, “Mordechai”.
Psychedelic global soul mystic chillwave fusion? I don’t know, let’s find out.
This is a minimal research, real-time reaction review to Mordechai by Khruangbin. Because I like to feel the music instead of overthinking whether a strand of lyrics could be a metaphor for foreign oil.
Listen along if shared experiences turn you on.
Sound good?
Headphones in. Volume UP. Enjoy.
Track One – First Class
I guess my first thought is…this is the future vibe when they start allowing legal opium tents at Coachella. Loungey. Cool. Like I’m sitting in the shade of a Willow tree at dusk and we just lit the kaleidoscope lanterns.
Track Two – Time (You and I)
Oh dang, funky funky funk. Krhuangbin’s bassline (supplied by Laura Lee) and drums are so sharp and clean. Definite summer of 1977 vibes, but you could also ice skate on Ecstasy to this in December. The first two tracks feel like this is what Empire of the Sun would sound like completely stripped down with none of the ethereal electronic bliss.
Track Three – Connaissais de Face
The way they play and flow, I just know Khruangbin is a band that will de-evolve a four-minute song into a 25-minute jam session. Am I wrong? Am I wrong, Khruangbin?
In the Genius credits for the band’s instrumentation, it’s clear to me that Mark Speer has an unprecedented mastery of auxiliary instruments. He plays lead Cowbell, lead Tambourine, lead Conga, and lead Minimoog.
I believe a “Minimoog” is a small, dwarf-like creature from the planet Dagobah. They’re extremely difficult to play.
Track Four – Father Bird, Mother Bird
This is an instrumental, and what that means is this is the song you hear as you leave your tent at the festival. And you say to your festival brethren, “hurry up, they’re doing sound checks!” And then you get down to the stage and they’re halfway through the set, and it’s 102 degrees and you forgot water and you now mysteriously have tetanus.
Track Five – If There Is No Question
I appreciate the overall “music that gets you high” tone of the album – it’s a slow-moving current, sonic swirls, cool shade, branches lazily dipped into the water, and you feel the cool gush the same way the leaves do.
Perform DNA tests of the band and I bet they come up as second cousins to the chillwave band, Washed Out.
Track Six – Pelota
Heavy Spanish and Flamenco music influences on this song. Why do I say that? Well, they’re singing in Spanish. That’s a start.
The singers, Mark and Laura Lee, share a glass of tequila as they record the song. Method singing. That authenticates it for me. I think the logical next step is for them to head down to the border and film a musical remake of “Desperado”.
Laura Lee of Khruangbin sings at a Pitchfork show in 2018.
Track Seven – One to Remember
I lied about listening to this on ice skates on Ecstasy in December. We can still try it for kicks, but I really only want to be on a wide inner tube on a deep green river in July. The chill-lounge soul current moves through the water with azure ripples and the sun dims, and the surface dances with the lazy glow of fireflies.
Track Eight – Dearest Alfred
An homage to Laura Lee’s grandfather’s memories which existed in the form of written letters. I know this because I’m a Khruangbin scholar, or maybe I’m following along the lyrics. (I said a minimal-research review – never said a minimal-lyric-reading review).
Extremely slow chill vibe, like the current dipped you off into a side eddy and you’re just lazily swirling in the shade, but don’t have the energy to push off back into the main flow.
Track Nine – So We Won’t Forget
If I restate the same facts twice in one review, you should take note and madly scribble the following words in big red Kindergarten crayon and post it on the refrigerator:
“The bass lines and drums on this album are super tight and clean.”
Glued macaroni is an acceptable substitute for big red Kindergarten crayon.
Track Ten – Shida
All the songs on Mordechai are cool, like a shade tree in a Sonoran oasis, but this song is the Cool. The smooth bass. The way they whisper “Shida”, like it’s entrance music in a Tarantino film.
Mordechai is an album you could put on repeat, and you would never know when the album ended, and when it started over. It’s all one flow.
What do I think?
Find a way to listen to the whole thing, in water, in the sun, without submerging your music-playing device in the same liquid cool “Mordechai” makes you want to dive into.
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Artist Links:
Khruangbin Insta
Songs by Khruangbin to get you bothered:
Texas Sun (Live version featuring Leon Bridges)
Feel Good (with Maribou State)
Two Fish and an Elephant