10 years of development manifested in an album
When Houston’s trail-blazing psych funk trio Khruangbin marked the tenth anniversary of their debut album, The Universe Smiles Upon You (released on 6th November 2015), they dusted off the old tapes and launched a surprise with The Universe Smiles Upon You II, a fully re-imagined version of the record unveiled yesterday.
Khruangbin returned to the same Central Texas barn where their journey began, with bassist Laura Lee, guitarist Mark Speer and drummer DJ Johnson picking up their instruments and letting a decade of growth flow through familiar songs in new forms.
“The thought was like, ‘We’ll just do it all over again… and it’ll be different because we’re different” Lee told Rolling Stone.
What emerges is not a mere nostalgia exercise, but a conscious renewal. The band swapped track order (opening with ‘Little Joe and Mary II’), retitled songs with “II” suffix, and reshaped the textures, all while preserving the core groove that made the original so compelling.
In this revisitation, the listener will discover a warmer, more immediate sound: subtle ambient detail, acoustic touches, contact mics and even field recordings that all point to the band’s desire to document how they interpret these songs ten years later.
Speer reflected on using microsounds like creaks and air in the room to give the new versions a “dusty” character.
For fans of the original’s dreamy Thai-pop-inflected surf-funk, this is not a radical departure.
You’ll be able to recognise the guitar lines, the bass grooves, and the laid-back charisma that is Khruangbin, but the nuance lies in the evolution: a subtle build up in dynamics, an enhanced emphasis on rhythm and a lived-in feel that only time can bring.
This rerelease is a rare moment of reflection in a fast-moving musical world. Listen now on all major streaming platforms or pre-order the LP here.
