Khana Bierbood

Khana Bierbood – Monolam – Thailand – Oct 2024

The words ‘Khana Bierhood’ translate to Strange Brew in English. Many may immediately think of the Cream song of the same name, or maybe envision a spiritual healer making a mixture rich of medicinal herbs. Neither description would be inaccurate in describing the band from Bandsaen Beach, Thailand.

Back in 2012, a group of university friends from the Bandsaen Beach area decided to form a band after realizing their shared love for western psychedelic music from the ’60’s and ’70’s. In the years following, the group combined their love for psychedelic jam, with surf rock, and a traditional Thai sound called Molam music, to create their unique style. The band released their first album in 2019 called Strangers from the Far East, after making a deal with Japanese independent record label Guruguru Brain‘, a label which focuses on spiritual, and ‘feel good’ music throughout Asia. The album has a true lo-fi sound to it, like it was purposely recorded on an old beat up 4-track cassette recorder, reminiscent of early Guided by Voices recordings.

Still with Guruguru Brain, Khana Bierhood as of last October has released their second album called Monolam. Surely a nod to monophonic sounding records of the ’60s, along with their own cultural Molam music. The record continues to dive into their influences of their last one, but takes away the lo-fi aesthetic and replaces it with a much stronger funk rock sound. From the first track titled ‘Hazy Juicy’ the percussion and bass guitar immediately sets the stage for the acid soaked, yet danceable rhythms throughout this album. The album is filled with Crybaby sounding wah-wah pedals, such as on the jam track ‘Gai Jik’, which sounds like something straight out of the Funkadelic classic, Maggot Brain. Then at times the tempo picks up and throws in something more influenced from the early 2000s garage rock revival such as The Strokes, on the track ‘Sang Xaswin’, which balances the line between chill surf and fast fuzz. Anyone who is interested in non-American cultural traditions in western psychedelic & surf music will get a lot out of this. Highly recommended for any fans of artists such as Takeshi Terauchi, LAIR, Traffic Sound, Blo, Mdou Moctar, even Carlos Santana.

Listen to the track ‘Hazy Juicy’ down below