Texas-based Khruangbin has officially announced their second full-length album, Con Todo El Mundo, due out on January 26, 2018 via Dead Oceans. Following 2015’s The Universe Smiles Upon You, the Thai funk, surf soul trio has released their first new music from the upcoming album today via NPR. The new song, “Maria También”, is complemented by a music video. The song and music video both celebrate the freedom that Iranian women had before the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
As NPR explains, “Between 1925 and 1979, Iranian women gained significant rights: access to education and employment, no requirement to wear a veil, the freedom to petition for divorce and child custody, and the rights to vote and to run for public office. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 established a theocracy that largely removed women from public life, both in government and the entertainment industry. Since then, women in the country have fought to try and regain the rights they lost, with many joining grassroots activist movements like the One Million Signatures campaign and pushing for parliamentary candidates who favor restoring women’s liberty.”
The music video for “Maria También” explores that lost freedom in a series of news clips that play over the band’s signature sounds. Watch the video or listen to the new track below: