"Face of Love" featuring Midwife, from the upcoming album, Birthmarks, out March 14th 2025 via Bella Union and Wharf Cat. Pre-order the album: https://ffm.to/birthmarks Subscribe: ‪‪@BambaraNYC‬ FOLLOW BAMBARA WEBSITE: https://www.bambaranyc.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/@bambaraband TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@bambaranyc Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BAMBARA.band/ Twitter - https://x.com/bambaraband Spotify - https://tinyurl.com/mr2rfktr Bambara is Reid Bateh, Blaze Bateh and William Brookshire Guest appearances on "Face of Love" by Madeline Johnston (vocals), Jen Monroe (backing vocals), Cory Bracken (vibraphone) and Marilu Donovan (Harp) VIDEO CREDITS: Editor and Additional Footage - Blaze Bateh Co-Producer & 2nd Camera - Chase Hodsdon Starring as “Elena” - Lucia Foshee Production Assistant - Elina Eventova SPECIAL THANKS Tim Nackashi James Velouria Melina Suriani Bonnie Clyde LYRICS: Her nametag says Elena, but she moves just like you used to. When I order a drink our eyes meet and the walls recede into— Fog so thick I can hardly see. Stumbling through the woods to the sound of your feet, kicking up leaves. I find you on your knees staring at a nest of dead copperheads under a tree-split boulder. I say, “When you’re running like a maniac, you’ll get there fast but the wind whips colder.” You grab the cross hanging at your chest. Your other hand, soft, on the back of my head as I’m catching my breath. You lick my ear then nearly bite it off. “Save preaching for the flock.” you say, then smile at the rocks and proclaim, “Here’s the spot where God said to me ‘Once love has a face, child, you can never be free.’” Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love. Elena’s hand mimes that she’s waiting for me. Stick-and-poke lines etch the tide on her sleeve. And birthmarks off the coast of her sea change shape and fade near the nape of her neck, the faint pink of a dead reef. But her eyes shine with a violet hue I’ve only seen in you. The same pious smile too. My whiskey sweats on Elena’s tray as I try to count the years or the decades I’ve aged since I drove away. Like a snake that bites after death, some faces are ageless, in stasis, till one night they inject shame into an older you. What’s left to do? But project on the ice as it melts in your drink. Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love. Watch her shimmy though acrylic beads. Her hips are swaying, but I see yours swing. My broken body starts to feel like it’s seventeen. I hear you singing, The highway threads a line through your past. Do you see me every time you look back? Bright red in the sunrise crying, wondering where you might be driving. In the fading crowds of fools you lie to do traces of my face still find you? Wait for me. I’ll jump up the truck and speed till I’m between your knees in the Technicolor gleam of the Starlight Drive-in screens. Then I’ll get that jealous priest who ran me out, baby. He’s just a fraud like me. And when my knuckles start to bleed, you’ll kiss ‘em clean. Yeah, but that’s a fantasy. ‘Cause I’m just ashes waiting to be scattered. Any place is fine. Don’t really matter.

"Letters From Sing Sing" from the upcoming album, Birthmarks, out March 14th 2025 via Bella Union and Wharf Cat. Pre-order the album: https://ffm.to/birthmarks Subscribe: ‪‪@BambaraNYC‬ FOLLOW BAMBARA WEBSITE: https://www.bambaranyc.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/@bambaraband TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@bambaranyc Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BAMBARA.band/ Twitter - https://x.com/bambaraband Spotify - https://tinyurl.com/mr2rfktr Starring - Bambara @bambaraband & Wife Erath as Elena @wifeafterdeath Director - Jason Miller @jasonmiller.tv Producer - Sean Gordon-Loebl @seanglobal DP - Violet Smith @viobensmith Production Company - Statement Of @statementof_ Executive Producers - Hannah Kinlaw @hannahkinlaw & Chelsea Moynehan @chelsea_moynehan/ Record Labels - Wharf Cat @wharfcatrecords & Bella Union @bella_union Editor - Jason Miller Colorist - Dylan Hageman @dylannhageman @House__Post Post Producer - Gina Martin @discocowgrl Post Coordinator - Logan Cross @loganwcross Title Design - Sepehr Mokhtarzadeh @sepehrmethedetails VFX - Blaze Bateh & Jason Miller 1st AC - Mo Shane @moshanegrams Video Playback & DV Op - Gary Bardizbanian @garybardizbanian Gaffer - Eddy Marrero @nycgaffer1 Best Boy Electric - Vladimir Dabovic @mistersx Key Grip - Jose Soto Best Boy Grip - Billy Adamez @billyadamez Production Designer - Jaclyn Goldstein @jaclyn_goldstein Art Director - Blair Taller @blair.taller Leadperson - Abbey Harris @abbey.harris84 Set Dresser - Lana Stepanova @nizhnishe Wardrobe Stylist - Stella Evans @_stellaevans Assistant Stylist - Kayla Perno @kaylaperno Makeup Artist - Gianna Guerino @bratmobile1999 Hair Artist - Mari Carreno @mari4l3jandra Production Assistants - Patrick McDonald @thefirstpatrick2 & Quincy Clark @qoncepts_ BTS Stills - Carrie Brautigam @subwayratofficial Special Thanks: Arri Rental @arri_rental Jayson Kim @jyssan House Post @house__post Zana Bayne @zanabayne Emcee @emceestudios Luis de Javier @luisdejavier Helmut Lang @helmutlang LYRICS: I swore, there’s no violence in my heart, but some priors with firearms gave the judge enough proof to rule killing your man’s no fluke. My left eye hid behind its lid while the glass one was staring into the endless midnight of life locked away from you. So I begged him to— Plug me in and hit the switch. Strike me with lighting. I’ll wear my dancing boots of polished python skin and kick till she’s smiling. If killing’s what I did, killed’s what I should get. Elena, you believe this place? It’s called Sing Sing, but there ain’t no karaoke. The guys get shy around spotlights. But if the state’s swayed by my case to resurrect the death house days and dust off Old Sparky, you’ll see how bright this songbird fries. We’ll harmonize when they— Plug me in and hit the switch. Strike me with lighting. I want to hear you laugh like a little kid through the crackling wires. It’ll sting a bit when the show begins and my blood’s ignited. But if we’re reunited, baby I wont mind it. Women want to send me photos. I tell them how to pose. Tape them up in my locker with halos of paint-pen gold. In sleep, I climb their bodies in a steep, writhing heap. At the top you kneel before me howling like a preacher’s dog in heat. Plug me in and hit the switch. Smite me with lighting. Witness me ascend, glowing from within. For My love burns brightly. Flames won’t cleanse this heart of sin, so let’s stop pretending. No, you want vengeance. Baby, come and get it.

“Pray to Me" from the upcoming album, Birthmarks, out March 14th 2025 via Bella Union and Wharf Cat. Pre-order the album: https://ffm.to/birthmarks Subscribe: ‪@BambaraNYC FOLLOW BAMBARA WEBSITE: https://www.bambaranyc.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bambaraband TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@bambaranyc Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BAMBARA.band Twitter - https://x.com/bambaraband Spotify - https://tinyurl.com/mr2rfktr Directed, Edited and Colored by William Hart Bambara is Reid Bateh, Blaze Bateh and William Brookshire Guest appearances on "Pray to Me" by Jummy Aremu (vocals) and Marilu Donovan (Harp) LYRICS: Elena’s clean and she’s never had a sip. Only the blood of the savior’s stained her lips. She appears to me in a dead confetti sea. Singing country karaoke through the mist of the coughing fog machine. Disco lights drift like flares on the braided halo in her hair Halo in her hair When I was a kid, some nights, I’d shoot arrows in the sky and stand still trusting God would not forsake me, till one came down and took out my eye. Tonight, I’m gonna be just like that arrow and take Elena by surprise. Pierce deep and drain her of the blood of Christ and replace it with a flood of mine. Guitars start plucking from the speakers. Playing, “Lonesome, On’ry, and Mean.” I grab the mic, looking for Elena, doing my best Waylon routine. Then I find her with a stranger, his hand on the halo in her hair. Pray to me Licking the sweat from her birth-marked neck as he pets that halo in her hair. The speakers start to hiss as he kisses that halo in her hair. I’m not a violent guy, but I don’t keep this knife around for fun. Next thing I know, Elena’s crying, “Oh my God, what have you done?” Falls to her knees in prayer. I tell her, “Pray to me, cause He ain’t there.” Pray to me Make my fingers like a gun, run ‘em on the halo in her hair. The stranger, slumped down in his chair, still stares at the halo in her hair. Don’t you be scared, just want that halo in your hair. #bambara #praytome #birthmarks #bellaunion #wharfcat

Pre-Order / Pre-Save ‘Love on My Mind’ by Bambara - https://bambara.wharfcatrecords.com/Love-on-My-Mind A Chemistry Creative Production Directed by Kevin Condon and Bambara Featuring Reid Bateh and Bria Salmena Director of Photography: Nicholas Motyka Lighting: Danny Ballester Choreographer: Alexandria Giroux Dancers: Collin Kelly, Nikkie Samreth, Lulu Soni and Madeline Wilcox Stylist: Sandra Sou Projectionists: John Syzonenko and Charlie Gangemi Colorist: Nicholas Motyka Key Grip: Anthony Montalbano Edited: Blaze Bateh and Nicholas Motyka Lyrics I showed up late and tired To party for a friend. Parked my car on a street Where trees grew along the fence. Then I saw you in the brake lights, Glowing in the limbs, As you searched your purse for matches Cigarette between your lips. Inside, we sat entwined And forgot everyone. Our hands were fugitives in spotlights When the dark bar lit up. With the doors locked behind us We scaled the fire escape And fucked to a choir of Screeching sunrise trains. You said, “This feeling It’s a dog in the mud. It’s a blade on the tip up your tongue. It’s a bottle smashed on the head of a TV stud. Hearing my name when you cum, It’s the Father, the Holy Ghost, and The Son. It’s a mythic kind of love.” Mythic love I know one day when I wake up, There’ll be a hole in the sky. And from that hole will come angel With bright, strobing eyes. And in those eyes will flash the brake lights You were bathed in that night With the trees along street And I’ll let loose the reigns of life. I said, “This feeling, It’s a web unspun. It’s breaking the neck of a dove. It’s a gun between your eyes when you’re talkin’ tough. Hearing my name when you cum, It’s the Father, the Holy Ghost, and The Son. It’s a mythic kind of love.” Mythic love About 'Love on My Mind' If the start of the breakthrough for Bambara was the radically reimagined sound of 2018’s Shadow On Everything (dubbed by NPR a “western gothic opus”), then the moment it truly arrived was on the cinematically riotous noir-punk of 2020’s Stray. In the UK, buoyed by the enthusiasm of 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq (who called the band, “one of his favourite discoveries of the year”), the band rose sharply, immediately selling out shows across the country. Meanwhile, back in their native US, KEXP’s John Richards echoed the same sentiment. Things were set. In fact, tickets had just gone on sale for their biggest show to date, a 1500 cap headliner at London’s Electric Ballroom. Then…well, then same as for everyone. Shutdown, lockdown, hibernation, nothing. It was a hammer blow. But rather than rue their misfortune, the band desperately tried to turn it into a positive, immediately moving to try to make more, and – they were determined - better, music. The result is the career-high ‘Love On My Mind’ – a six song mini-album, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer - that condenses all the energy and darkness that has made Bambara so compelling but rearranges them into something defiantly new. Not that getting there was easy. With the band’s core (twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, the singer and drummer, and childhood friend William Brookshire, bass) scattered across the US, they remotely pieced together an EP but as soon as it was finished, they scrapped it. In their words, it felt “dishonest”. They were striving for something new and they hadn’t hit the mark. They realized they needed to change approach so at that point they decided to reconvene in New York. Finally, things started to take shape. By now, they had a better idea of where they wanted to head. They knew they wanted to include a couple of duets and enlisted the vocals of Bria Salmena (Orville Peck/Frigs) and Drew Citron (Public Practice). They also wanted to expand their sound palette so turned to Jason Disu and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) to add trombone and saxophone respectively. They recorded again, utilizing all these new elements, sampling their recordings as they went along, in the process manipulating the sounds across the EP. The final result is something astonishing. Opening track, “Slither in the Rain,” 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 ‘Love On My Mind’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, here we are introduced to a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and causes the songs to hit on a more human level. It’s a change he readily acknowledges. It all just contributes to the picture of something truly special. ‘Love on My Mind’ is another massive step forward for Bambara. This time though, absolutely nothing’s going to stop them following through on it.

Here are the credits: Directed by William Hart and Bambara Shot by William Hart Actors: Alex Giroux and Andrea Galvez Order the 'Stray' LP Here - https://www.wharfcatrecords.com/store/bambara-stray One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s Stray is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, abstract and personified  – perhaps the key to the whole record. Death, however, won’t be the first thing that strikes you about the group’s fourth – and greatest – album to date. That instead will be its pulverising soundscape; by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times – on stand out tracks like “Sing Me To The Street” and “Serafina” – simply overwhelming   Bambara – twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, singer/guitarist and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire – have been evolving their midnight-black noise into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut Dreamviolence. That process greatly accelerated on 2018’s Shadow On Everything, their first on New York’s Wharf Cat Records and  a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically.    The album was rapturously received by the press, listeners and their peers. NPR called it a “mesmerising...western, gothic opus,” Bandcamp called the "horror-house rampage" "one of the year's most gripping listens," and Alexis Marshall of Daughters named it his “favorite record of 2018.”  Shadow also garnered much acclaim on the other side of the Atlantic. Influential British 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq, dubbed them the best band of 2019’s SXSW, and Joe Talbot of the UK band IDLES said, "The best thing I heard last year was easily Bambara and their album Shadow On Everything."  The question was, though, how to follow it?   To start, the band did what they always do: they locked themselves in their windowless Brooklyn basement to write. Decisions were made early on to try and 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. “Death is what you make it” runs a lyric in “Sweat,” a line which may very well be the thread  that ties these stories together.   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.

Directed by Will Hart and Bambara Filmed by Will Hart Production Assistant: Max Cann **STROBE LIGHT WARNING** "Sing Me to the Street" is from the album 'Stray' which is out on Wharf Cat Records. Pre-order yours here - http://bit.ly/2mxQaLh

Directed by Bambara and William Hart Shot by William Hart "Heat Lightning" is from the album "Stray" out on 2/14. Order your LP/CD/Special Edition LP here - https://www.wharfcatrecords.com/store/bambara-stray Pre-order / Stream: https://smarturl.it/h3atlightning 'Stray' is a deeply expressive and evocative release, that elevates the tightly composed goth-adjacent post-punk that has become the band’s hallmark, while walking a fascinating path as an exercise in songwriting. It’s an album built on dedication, creative risk taking and an immersive approach to creative expression that pay off in a release that, for the already celebrated band, represents a monumental leap forward.

Shot by William Hart Directed by Bambara and William Hart Filmed at Palisades bambara.bandcamp.com

Directed by Bambara Starring Tasha Peterson, Jules Tomei, Hayden Hinton-Deschner, and Noah Fowler Thanks to Ambika Terhanian Order the 'Stray' LP here - https://www.wharfcatrecords.com/store/bambara-stray About 'Stray' One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s Stray is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable. It would be wrong, however, to characterize the group’s fourth album as simply a dark and gloomy affair. The sonic landscape is varied, showcasing the band at both their heaviest and most nuanced, while the lyrics quickly go from the sublime to the surreal. It is undoubtedly their strongest statement yet.