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CUTS DEEP:

ALBUM TRACKS THAT DESERVE THEIR PLACE IN THE LIGHT….

BAMBARA

“BACKYARD”

WHARF CAT

“BACKYARD” is the penultimate track on BAMBARA’s tremendous new LP titled ‘Shadow On Everything.’ 

The Brooklyn based trio of Reid Bateh (vocals, guitar), William Brookshire (bass), & Blaze Bateh (drums) know a thing or two when it comes to the darker sides of life & they sure as hell know how to pen a noir-drenched ballad as evidenced on the lurching “Backyard.” 

I cannot stress enough how much this band, this album, & this song has moved me in the past few months despite the fact that this here blog has been on that Bambara train for years now. The trio have found a way to further impress their ardent following by taking what they’re good at & doubling down while flexing their moody might. Call it the right place at the right time, but I’ll just call it fucking good! 

“Backyard” is a waltzy & devastating ballad that finds Bateh dueting with the uber talented Lyzi Wakefield who adds a feminine, yet no-less-deadly, touch to the macho proceedings. Each traded barb & echoed coo lacerates, then comes back to rub salt in the wound before washing it off with alcohol. There’s a fleeting desperation in the twangy 4 plus minutes that make up the doomed “Backyard,” and we’re all better off having witnessed the bloodletting....

Bambara’s latest & greatest LP ‘Shadow On Everything’ is out now via Wharf Cat

BAMBARA

‘SHADOW ON EVERYTHING’ 

WHARF CAT

Hello friends, meet your new favorite band.... BAMBARA have returned with their third LP, the fittingly titled ‘SHADOW ON EVERYTHING’ and have released their finest work to date. 

The Brooklyn based trio of Reid Bateh (vocals, guitar), William Brookshire (bass), and Blaze Bateh (drums) have long been favs of this here blog, so to see them return and armed with something as tremendous as ‘Shadow On Everything’ brings this here author much fucking joy! Bambara’s latest further delves into the Western Gothic Noir vibe that they’ve been perfecting over the years and is absolute proof that they have taken the mantle when it comes to the discussion of great modern Rock band who espouse the darker sides of life (sorry Iceage).    

‘Shadow on Everything’ pulls you in right off the bat & wholeheartedly brings you into their world of seedy darkness. There’s a danger here, a willingness to be crude, to be coarse, to be fucking real! Danger has been severely lacking in pretty much any form of Art, these dangerously PC times have thwarted original thought or anything that dares to not align itself with how everyone else is feeling/thinking.  

Rock ‘n’ roll, and society in general, has become a relative safe space, where any contrarian thought is ridiculed & bullied into conformity. The oppressed or ones declaring anything & everyone who doesn’t fall into their purview nazis have become, well.....

‘Shadow on Everything’ feels born out of a societal stalemate, one that marries raw magnetism & a literary pen with a visceral canvas of carnal rock ‘n’ roll. And it’s not as if Bambara have recently discovered this, they’ve been spreading this across 3 albums now, but something is different this time, this time it feels like there’s real stakes involved or maybe it just hit this author at the exact moment it needed to.  

This is the quintessential western gothic noir and in an earlier era Reid Bateh would be a famous (albeit cult-like) author or wielding his pen right alongside Cormac McCarthy. Bateh will drop a line about sucking someone off or a bitch being lazy and it never feels forced or an act of trolling for shock value, there’s too much thought & poetic bend behind the words. When these fleshed out words meet the musical arrangement that the boys deploy, something truly unique happens & you can’t help but perk up at what’s emanating from the speakers.

The one thing that Bambara do not do, is bore you. They know how to charge hard (“Monument, The Door Between Her Teeth”) & they know how to man a Morricone western death ballad (“Steel Dust Ocean, Backyard”) in an organic fashion.  And the songs NEVER overstay their welcome, take fucking note! 

There’s a cohesive narrative, characters appear and reappear throughout along with deserts and visions of the West. Bambara deal in fleshed out imagery and the music they affix to their words feels just as real. I could sit here all day and try my best to describe how the songs sound etc, but fuck that, you need to press play and take it all in (on a good pair of headphones for Christ’s sake!) for yourself....

“Dark Circles” opens the album & sets the stage for what's about to go down across the next 11 tracks. “Dark Circles” is one hell of an opening statement, poetically setting the tone through pure twang & menace, these are the things of a proper first impression. The tribal like rhythm & fraught narrative forecast what you’re getting yourself into and by the time Bateh waxes about “Your art friends who sucked each other off, For the rich man on the hill” it’s too late, you’re enthralled. 

The stomping bravado of “Doe-Eyed Girl” immediately picks up the pace through howling goth rock, while the slight reprieves as witnessed on “Night’s Changing” & “Human Hair” offer a moment to simply collect yourself. Early single “Jose Tries To Leave” brings all that you’ve come to expect from the trio, as twangy guitars bend with deathrock hues and a tribal rhythm sets the perfect bed for Bateh’s bravado laced vocal. Bambara know how to draw you and hook you by hypnosis, as witnessed on the way “Jose” unfolds and recaptures the lost & lusty feeling that’s been sorely lacking within guitar based music.   “Monument” is all chugging western tinged punk with Brookshire’s fat bass line riding alongside Blaze Bateh’s galloping back-beat & rangy guitars all wrapped in an amphetamine fueled delivery/melody while “Steel Dust Ocean” is the ideal slow-burn, a funeral dirge with swelling strings that amounts to a culmination of euphoric beauty.  The one-two punch of “Backyard” & “Back Home” close the album out in glorious perfection. “Backyard” is waltzy & devastating ballad that finds Bateh dueting with the uber talented Lyzi Wakefield who adds a feminine yet no-less-deadly touch to the macho proceedings.

Proper album closer “Back Home” was a midnight hour deadline addition, which serves the track’s open ended-ness well, which I for one am truly grateful for. The melody & turns of phrase that run throughout “Back Home” forever fuck me up and despite the fact that Bateh allows the song a full 1:20 to breath before uttering a single word before proceeding to lay down a fully realized & poetic narrative is simply insane and proves just how talented of a wordsmith/singer he truly is. 

The Brooklyn based Bambara have clearly made their masterpiece with ‘Shadow On Everything’ and have officially thrown their hat into the Album of the Year conversation.

CUTS DEEP:

ALBUM TRACKS THAT DESERVE THEIR PLACE IN THE LIGHT…..

HOLY MOTORS

“SILENTLY FOR ME”

WHARF CAT

“SILENTLY FOR ME” is an early album track off of HOLY MOTORS’ tremendous debut LP ‘Slow Sundown.’

The Tallinn, Estonia based group, consisting of vocalist Eliann Tulve, guitarists Lauri Raus, Hendrik Tammjärv, & Gert Guttman, along with drummer Kaspar Kiinvald have a true knack for finding that place in your heart & mind that digs at something deeper, prying bits of nostalgia from within. The most potent example of this is on the Mazzy Star-esque “Silently For Me,” with its slow and aching movements that unearth some forgotten feeling. 

“Silently for Me” is the homerun, the track that stands out amongst the other gems and is the one to repeatedly fuck me up. Sometimes, well most of the time, words fail to capture the essence of a song, and “Silently” is one such case. You simply need to press play and let its majestic ways unfold and take hold. To say it sounds like Mazzy Star is not only a no-brainer but one that is the highest of compliments and not meant as a slight or dig. Most of you weren’t cognizant when Hope Sandoval was at the peak of her powers, so relax and enjoy the rich tones & deep twang.

Holy Motors’ debut LP ‘Slow Sundown’ is out now via Wharf Cat Records