Khruangbin

Khruangbin consists of guitarist Mark Speer, bassist Laura Lee Ochoa and drummer Donald 'DJ' Johnson Jr. The Houston-based trio developed a mostly instrumental sound built from economical guitar lines, melodic bass, restrained grooves and a wide listening vocabulary. Early inspiration from 1960s and 1970s Thai funk helped give the group its name — khruang bin means airplane in Thai — but its recordings have continued to absorb influences from multiple regions rather than imitate a single style.

Houston remains important to the band's story even as its audience became international. Johnson's church-music background and the members' Texas connections sit alongside collaborations with Fort Worth singer Leon Bridges on Texas Sun and Texas Moon. Albums including The Universe Smiles Upon You, Con Todo el Mundo and A La Sala established Khruangbin as a band whose Texas identity is strongest as a point of formation and collaboration, not as a boundary on what the music can reference.

Khruangbin is a useful example of Texas music operating as a launch point for cross-cultural listening rather than a closed stylistic category. Thai funk was an early catalyst, but the trio's catalog also engages soul, surf, dub, Middle Eastern scales, cumbia and other traditions.

Its collaborations with Leon Bridges make the Texas connection unusually explicit while still demonstrating how different Fort Worth and Houston musical traditions can meet without becoming generic 'Texas music.'