Listen: Arooj Aftab Taps Khruangbin for “raat ki rani” Remix
Photo Credit: Valentina von Klencke
Arooj Aftab has shared a new remix of “raat ki rani,” the lead single from her 2024 album Night Reign, courtesy of Khruangbin. The Houston-based psych-rock trio’s omnivorous tastes are as present as ever on the rework, taking Aftab’s Grammy-nominated track into surprising new territory.
Remix may be too small a word for Khruangbin’s properly collaborative “raat ki rani” treatment, as Aftab joined the trio in the studio to cut all-new vocals with the band’s instrumentals. The genre-bending Pakistani-American artist’s second pass at the song–which, like much of Night Reign, finds influence in the 18th-century Urdu poetry of Mah Laqa Bai Chanda–shows a whole new side of her shapeshifting sound, drawing distant, hypnotic grooves from the soul-stirring track.
Khruangbin’s new backing features Mark Speer’s inimitable simmering guitar, a dense, rumbling bassline from Laura Lee and soft hand percussion from Donald “DJ” Johnson. The most striking addition is a sampled breakbeat that propels the song forward and loops to evoke Khruangbin’s slow-burning dub albums. Altogether, these subtle touches amount to an intoxicating downtempo atmosphere somewhere between quiet storm, acid jazz and soul-house. Listen to “raat ki rani (Khruangbin Remix)” now.
For more information on Aftab and her ongoing tour, visit aroojaftab.com. Read about her recent performance in the 38th Annual Tibet House US Benefit Concert here, and check out her 2024 Relix feature here.
