{"title":"Bambara","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBambara is an American post-punk band hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Originally formed in Athens, Georgia, the band has made a name for themselves with their unique blend of atmospheric rock and gritty punk influences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith their haunting vocals and darkly poetic lyrics, Bambara creates a sound that is both captivating and intense. Their music explores themes of love, loss, and the human condition, drawing listeners into a world of raw emotion and sonic exploration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKnown for their energetic live performances and dynamic stage presence, Bambara has gained a loyal following of fans who are drawn to their authentic sound and powerful storytelling. With each release, they continue to push boundaries and redefine what it means to be a post-punk band in the modern music landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"stray","title":"Stray","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first thing that strikes you about \u003ci\u003eStray,\u003c\/i\u003e Bambara’s fourth – and greatest – album to date, will be its pulverizing soundscape. By turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and, at times – on stand out tracks like \u003ci\u003eSing Me To The Street\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSerafina\u003c\/i\u003e – simply overwhelming. But \u003ci\u003eStray\u003c\/i\u003e is not merely another, better entry in a catalog full of darkly thrilling, blistering experimental rock-via-punk. Rather, early on in its conception the band made the decision to experiment with new compositions and song structures. The resulting addition of backing vocals from Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivory-Block (Palberta) create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s drunken baritone on tracks like \u003ci\u003eSing Me to the Street\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDeath Croons\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eStay Cruel\u003c\/i\u003e, while the Dick Dale-inspired guitar riffs on \u003ci\u003eSerafina\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHeat Lightning\u003c\/i\u003e and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese are just a few of the changes that reveal this album to be the monumental step forward that it is. Here Bambara finally sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying. For fans of Protomartyr, Daughters and IDLES.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wharf Cat","offers":[{"title":"Clear | LP","offer_id":50388459159883,"sku":"1079352","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Green | LP","offer_id":50388459553099,"sku":"1077173","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50388459258187,"sku":"1077174","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/55c69460-9532-4b45-b322-7a86c68680d8_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1726342450"},{"product_id":"dreamviolence","title":"Dreamviolence","description":"\u003cp\u003eReissue of 2013 album that has only been on vinyl once and in a micro edition. \u003cem\u003eDreamviolence\u003c\/em\u003e is Bambara’s full-length follow-up to their acclaimed debut EP \u003cem\u003eDog Ear Days\u003c\/em\u003e (2010).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter playing countless deafening shows in their hometown of Athens, touring the US in sweaty house shows, and sharing bills with Iceage, Grimes, Liturgy, A Place to Bury Strangers, and Parts and Labor, Bambara decided to leave their beloved Athens and move to a basement apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn for a change. Here they practiced, slept, and recorded for the majority of 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing the release of a Kate Bush cover and a 10-minute improv noise EP Rings early in the year, Bambara began to work on \u003cem\u003eDreamviolence\u003c\/em\u003e. With a minimal recording set-up and little sunlight, the band was able to completely capture the dark, grimy, noisy sound they are known for while maintaining the lush beauty that glues it all together. Reid’s voice croons and snarls the fragmented images of the city. Blaze and William’s driving rhythm section plows and swings through the dirge of vocal noise with furious power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBambara doesn’t want you to get comfortable in \u003cem\u003eDreamviolence\u003c\/em\u003e. They prefer to send you through vortexes of haunting noise before you reach the dreamy euphoria waiting in the wreckage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wharf Cat","offers":[{"title":"LP - Blue | Signed | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50393741164875,"sku":"2050179","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":50393740935499,"sku":"2050178","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Dreamviolence_9639a84a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726425301"},{"product_id":"love-on-my-mind","title":"Love on My Mind","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith \u003ci\u003eLove on My Mind\u003c\/i\u003e – the six song mini-album, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer (Tennis, Parquet Courts, Johnny Marr) – Bambara condense all the energy and darkness that have made them so compelling and rearrange it into something defiantly new. Opening track, \u003ci\u003eSlither in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e, all hissing high-hat and spectral synthlines, is a true statement of intent. It’s minimal and atmospheric, foregrounding Bateh’s raw vocals as he introduces one of \u003ci\u003eLove On My Mind\u003c\/i\u003e’s main characters years after the events of the album are over, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and dances a two-step in the pattern of a figure-8. While Bateh has always been adept at character sketches, tracks lke \u003ci\u003eSlither\u003c\/i\u003e introduce a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and cause the songs to hit on a more human level. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSimilarly, \u003ci\u003ePoint And Shoot\u003c\/i\u003e – in which each stanza describes the louche, lawless scenes of “rooftop girls \/ standing shoulder-to-shoulder, naked figures with their hips \/ cocked,” busted up jaws, and couches full of burn-holes captured by the snapshots of Love on My Mind’s female lead – displays an autobiographical intimacy that is not as apparent in Bambara’s previous releases.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis tenderness is echoed on \u003ci\u003eBirds\u003c\/i\u003e, a rare love song (from which the EP’s title is derived), and album closer \u003ci\u003eLittle Wars\u003c\/i\u003e, a gripping finale of loneliness and isolation. But while these songs may display a softer side of Bambara, it’s important to note that they haven’t lost the thrill of what attracted so \u003cbr\u003emany people to them in the first place. \u003ci\u003eMythic Love\u003c\/i\u003e (featuring vocalsfrom Bria Salmena), with its driving bassline and ricocheting guitar lines, brings to mind past rave-ups like \u003ci\u003eSerafina\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSunbleached Skulls\u003c\/i\u003e but obliterates them in the process, while \u003ci\u003eFeelin’ Like A Funeral\u003c\/i\u003e – a dangerously oscillating tale of a city knifing – is probably the most thrillingly anthemic song the band have ever recorded. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTaken together, Love on My Mind amounts to another massive step forward for Bambara – the boldest thing they’ve ever done – and the sound of yet another breakthrough.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wharf Cat","offers":[{"title":"Green | 12\"","offer_id":50465147453771,"sku":"1135277","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50465148109131,"sku":"1135278","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2d4e201d-2f23-4404-b213-2ca88500ed61_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727281926"},{"product_id":"shadow-on-everything","title":"Shadow on Everything","description":"\u003cp\u003eReissue of Bambara’s\u003ci\u003e Shadow On Everything \u003c\/i\u003efrom 2018. First time on coloured vinyl. Released in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim, Bambara’s \u003ci\u003eShadow On Everything\u003c\/i\u003e represented a decisive step forward for twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh – frontman and drummer, respectively – and their childhood friend, bassist William Brookshire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile prior to its release they had always been adept students of noise rock and post-punk, mining the work of bands like Swans and The Birthday Party to construct what NPR called “beautifully dynamic nightmares,” on Shadow they boldly redefifined their sound to create an album that clearly transcended their early inflfluences and dramatically quickened the pace of their ascent from the underground. Consistent with their frenetic live set, the musical center of \u003ci\u003eShadow On Everything\u003c\/i\u003e is Bambara’s impossibly tight rhythm section, with Blaze’s manic drumming and William’s rock-steady basslines serving as the perfect canvas for Reid’s wild guitar squalls and howled vocals. But the album’s recording marked the fifirst time that Reid’s voice was pushed to the front of the mix, high- lighting the damaged characters and seedy locales that interact and overlap throughout its 12 songs. A stridently experimental record, Shadow features everything from violin to saxophone arrangements, and is meticulously interspersed with outré ambient noise loops distilled down from hours of manipulated vocal collages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJust two years after its release \u003ci\u003eShadow On Everything\u003c\/i\u003e may seem like it was the logical next step for a band with experimental and punk origins that would go on to construct the intricate compositions displayed by its follow up Stray. In fact, Shadow memorializes Bambara putting everything on the line because they knew they could be more than what anyone may have seen in them up to that point in time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wharf Cat","offers":[{"title":"White | LP","offer_id":50489307365707,"sku":"1103845","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Red LP","offer_id":50489307693387,"sku":"1103844","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50489306874187,"sku":"1028903","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/c9c026a7-82e6-4c1a-948e-d751643cc8e6_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727642174"},{"product_id":"swarm-2","title":"Swarm","description":"\u003cp\u003eUpon Swarm’s 2016 release, Brooklyn-based Bambara had been honing their noise-rock brutalism since forming in Athens, Georgia in 2009. On \u003ci\u003eSwarm\u003c\/i\u003e, their second full-length, the band began to pull their approach into sharp focus, and the result was a foundational triumph. After the pure noise experimentation of their 2013 debut \u003ci\u003eDreamviolence\u003c\/i\u003e, here the band began to develop many of their later trademarks. Marrying the maniacal ravings of The Birthday Party and the brutality of early Swans with the tangled roots- punk of The Gun Club, the spotlight started to fall on vocalist\/ guitarist Reid Bateh’s lyrics as well as the “Spaghetti western” atmospherics that would come to the fore to such effect on later releases such as \u003ci\u003eShadow On Everything\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eStray\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Bambara’s visceral and pummeling performances, which led to extensive touring opportunities along rising star contemporaries such as Gilla Band, Algiers, and IDLES before earning the band their own headlining slot on multiple international tours, \u003ci\u003eSwarm\u003c\/i\u003e will serve as a sort of missing link. Now, for the first time ever, live-set favourites such as the brooding “An Ill Son,” the flawlessly dynamic “Black,” and the pop-snarled “All the Ugly Things” can be listened to at a level of audio fidelity on par with the band’s later recordings. Tiny Mix Tapes praised \u003ci\u003eDreamviolence\u003c\/i\u003e, the band’s first LP, by saying that “complete, utter anguish has never sounded this good.” \u003ci\u003eSwarm\u003c\/i\u003e made it sound even better. With these 12 songs, Bambara proved that sometimes the only way to confront a fucked-up world is to sink to its level. As Henry Rollins succinctly summed it up at the time, this is a “REALLY cool record.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wharf Cat","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50509631521099,"sku":"2027360","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Swarm_a05e3449_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727866949"},{"product_id":"birthmarks-6","title":"Birthmarks","description":"\u003cp\u003eProduced by \u003cstrong\u003eGraham Sutton\u003c\/strong\u003e (These New Puritans, Bark Psychosis), \u003cem\u003eBirthmarks\u003c\/em\u003e is New York band \u003cstrong\u003eBambara's\u003c\/strong\u003e fifth, and best, studio album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA wild, musically adventurous suite of songs that follows a host of lost characters caught in a multi-generational cycle of love, violence, and rebirth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"Violet LP | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50871538286923,"sku":"2233710","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Red LP","offer_id":50866806620491,"sku":"2233578","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50871537697099,"sku":"2233579","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/de63cf88-27d2-4edc-9f1d-e85f4e115014_1382caca_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1732108547"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_615aa25e_thumbnail_4096_cfee4ffc-84ff-43ab-9116-3b33e4bff3c9.jpg?v=1726342410","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/bambara.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}