In October, NYC’s Bambara announced their album Stray (due out on Wharf Cat Records on February 14th), with a lead single entitled “Serafina”.
Described by The FADER as “a love song for suburban Armageddon,” the track received a rapturous reception in the press on both sides of the Atlantic, receiving praise from outlets like NPR, DIY, Paste, NME, Brooklyn Vegan, Clash, Line of Best Fit and was play listed at 6 Music following a standout live session for Steve Lamacq.
The band also toured in the UK, selling out the majority of their first headlining tour there, Today, Bambara have returned with the second single from their forthcoming full length, a track entitled “Sing Me To The Street,” which features vocals from Ani Ivry-Block of Palberta, and Drew Citron of Public Practice and Beverly.
The track sees the band in a more meditative mode than on the barnstorming “Serafina,” with Ivry-Block and Citron providing a counter-point to Reid Bateh’s moody baritone amid a swirl of synths and a cyclical bass line. The songs on Stray are for the most part short narratives, with the album functioning like a collection of short stories about a group of inter-related characters in the band’s native Georgia. While many of the characters, like the lead single’s titular Serafina, are named “Sing Me To The Street” features a different approach as Reid Bateh explains:
‘”Sing me to the Street’ is about loneliness, isolation, and the dreamy allure of chaos. The song follows an unnamed character wandering the streets of a vast city that feels both alive and abandoned, as he attempts to silence the persistent song of oblivion singing in his head.”
In support of “Stray” and following the strong reception to their previous shows here, Bambara are announcing a new set of European tour dates in 2020, including their biggest London headliner yet at The Dome in Tufnell Park.
Full details can be found below.
Further information:
One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s Stray is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, abstract and personified. Death, however, won’t be the first thing that strikes you about the group’s fourth album. That instead will be its pulverising soundscape; by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times – as on stand out tracks like “Sing Me To The Street” and “Serafina” – simply overwhelming
The album began when the band locked themselves in their windowless Brooklyn basement to write. Despite the success of their preceding full length, Shadow On Everything, Decisions were made early on to experiment with new instrumentation and song structures, even if the resulting compositions would force the band to adapt their storied live set, known for its tenacity and technical prowess. Throughout the songwriting process, the band pulled from their deep well of creative references, drawing on the likes of Leonard Cohen, Ennio Morricone, Sade, classic French noir L’Ascenseur Pour L’Echafraud, as well as Southern Gothic stalwarts Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews.
Once the building blocks were set in place, they met with producer Drew Vandenberg, who mixed Shadow On Everything, in Athens, GA to record the foundation of Stray. After recruiting friends Adam Markiewicz (The Dreebs) on violin, Sean Smith (Klavenauts) on trumpet and a crucial blend of backing vocals by Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivry-Block (Palberta) Bambara convened in a remote cabin in rural Georgia, where Reid laid down his vocals.
The finished product represents both the band’s most experimental and accessible work to date. The addition of Citron and Ivory-Block’s vocals create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s commanding baritone on tracks like “Sing Me to the Street”, “Death Croons” and “Stay Cruel,” while the Dick Dale inspired guitar riffs on “Serafina” and “Heat Lightning” and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listens.
While the music itself is evocative and propulsive, a fever dream all of its own, the lyrical content pushes the record even further into its own darkly thrilling realm. If the songs on Shadow On Everything were like chapters in a novel, then this time they’re short stories. Short stories connected by death and its effect on the characters in contact with it.
But it would be wrong to characterize Stray as simply the sound of the graveyard. Light frequently streams through and, whether refracted through the love and longing found on songs like “Made for Me” or the fantastical nihilism on display in tracks like the anthemic “Serafina,” reveals this album to be the monumental step forward that it is. Here Bambara sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying.
Stray will be released on Wharf Cat Records on February 14th, 2020.
