Khruangbin

The prospect of Thai-inspired funk written and performed by three friends from Houston, Texas, might sound like a terrible prospect, however Khruangbin are anything but. Laura Lee (bass), Mark Speer (guitar), and Donald Johnson (drums) make the kind of instrumental music you’d imagine J Dilla would be cribbing from if he were still around, with lush expansive tracks that are performed with a hair metal-style exuberance. Lee and Johnson provide the backing on beautiful psych numbers like White Gloves, while Speer reels around, alternating between subtle picking and over-the-top, down-on-both-knees shredding. It’s at times needlessly over the top but behind it all is music that is carefully crafted and a fitting tribute to the groups found on excellent Thai music sites such as monrakplengthai.blogspot.com. Tracks like Mr White and Two Fish and an Elephant break through the clammy, humid Austin afternoon with their own brand of sunshine.

Real Estate

Back with their new album In Mind, the New Jersey indie group set up shop in a car park on the outskirts of Austin, not too far away from the flagship store of Whole Foods. Like that company there’s a certain wholesomeness to the band who have consistently put out records that operate in the very narrow parameters of indie guitar music. Within that lane, though, Real Estate have found riches and their new songs sound great. Darling is the kind of jangly fare they’ve been producing for almost a decade and its mix of synth with gently played Telecaster chords still produces the kind of soothing singalong that they do so well. They rarely encourage the crowd to get beyond some enthusiastic head nodding but that’s the right response to a band that specialises in understatement.

DRAM

Understatement isn’t really DRAM’s thing. In the backyard of an Urban Outfitters store a couple of miles out of Austin’s downtown area, he’s released beachballs into the crowd which is mostly made up of amped-up teenagers waiting to see one of the most buzzed-about acts this year. His track Broccoli has been unavoidable over the last six months, taking him from a rap outlier to a genuine chart prospect. His fun demeanour and focus on exuding positive vibes made him stand out in the world of rap, but here it’s his music that really catches the attention. Like Chance the Rapper, there are nods to soul and funk artists, and a live band which provides the backing for an act who is as much like Teddy Pendergrass as T-Pain.

Starting with a song that’s like a three-minute self-help guide, Get It Myself, DRAM (his name stands for Does. Real. Ass. Music) has to be the most positive act at the festival. Even his banter between songs is relentlessly happy. “Make some noise if you love your momma,” is his go-to refrain. Tracks like Cash Machine and Cute are bona fide pop smashes, that paint DRAM as a kind of goofy accidental star who is as self-effacing as he is confident. Live, he pushes and strains his singing voice to the point of it almost breaking, but every word is repeated by the crowd who completely lose it when he walks among them. There’s a moment where it seems like they won’t play Broccoli, a song that’s become so big it could eclipse his other, just as catchy work. But when he comes back out to perform it he turns it into a lounge jazz track for the first minute or so before reverting to the stripped-back original. Funny, original and undeniably infectious, DRAM is the future of pop.