Khana Bierbood

There’s not a dull spot in the Guruguru Brain roster. The label proves releases after release that it’s still the best barometer for Eastern psych, shining a light on scenes from Taiwan, India, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. They return again to Thailand for a second release from Khana Bierbood. The band’s last outing had a shrouded, almost garage feel to it. Caked in a layer of fuzz, it felt like a found treasure that had been happened upon while sifting through crates at Thai tape markets. The follow-up finds the band scrubbing up the sound with label head Go Kurosawa (Kikagaku Moyo) in the production chair. Monolam crystalizes the band’s sound without letting themselves get pinned down. It’s a psychedelic gem that flirts with genre, but knows just how to build an aura over the course of an album.

Hung heavily on funk, the new album slinks through humid afternoons and into the neon night. The album has the air of a ‘70s soundtrack, chasing unseen antagonists through back alleys draped in wah-guitar washes. The atmosphere turns murky and smoke curls through flickering bar lights. They let a touch of the rock chug back into the midsection, slipping past gnarled surf on “Sang Xaswin,” before swerving back into the rhythm and rapture of psych-funk. As we near the end, the band let the psychedelics take hold, pinning spoken word passages to the gentle unfurling of ” Sam Pa Yeur.” The band’s never sounded so sure of themselves and the album cements itself among a legacy of Thai psych scene stealers over the years. This one’s gonna have to tear itself off of the speakers.