Today, Brooklyn trio Bambara announce their long-awaited new album „Birthmarks“, which will be released on March 14 via Bella Union and can be pre-ordered here. To accompany the announcement, the band have released the driving lead single and album highlight „Pray To Me“ – watch the video here:
The band have also announced an extensive UK and EU tour for April and May 2025.
Bambara vocalist Reid Bateh comments on the unconventional and noir-ish narrative of the title track as follows: „Pray To Me is about a one-eyed man who comes to a country karaoke night with a knife in his pocket with a plan to capture a girl named Elena, the object of his obsession. His fantasy derails murderously when he sees her kissing a stranger at the bar.“
Bambara, an extraordinary, night leaning, modernist rock band steeped in Southern Gothic, have developed their macabre vision to perfection with their fifth album ‚Birthmarks‘. Created in collaboration with co-producer Graham Sutton of British experimental pioneers Bark Psychosis (a man also largely responsible for These New Puritans‘ seminal records), it’s less a concept album and more an astonishingly complex work of storytelling featuring unforgettable characters, including the aforementioned C&W karaoke bar siren with halo hair and a one-eyed murderer begging for the electric chair – all not exactly music set to music, but actually born from it.
photo credit: Jason Thomas Geering