((Bambara)) Band Profile and Upcoming New York City Concerts - Oh My Rockness


Written by Patrick McNamara

Brooklyn's (by way of Athens, GA) Bambara are a dark, twisted and often pretty (?) band. Led by twin bros Reid and Blaze Bateh and their pal William Brookshire - these dudes make chilly DIY brutality using machines, loops and other assorted lo-fi software gadgetry (no guitars or synths are welcome here). It's not exactly a day at the races. Unless it was this famously depressing race. Then Bambara's music would fit quite nicely.

Bambara mentioned being influenced by Swans + Nick Cave + David Lynch (Yes! Yes! No! No! Yes!) if that helps take you down the correct path (and you better stay on that path - who knows what evil lurks within those nearby trees).

This band isn't for everyone. (No band is. Thankfully. Because that band would be the most powerful entity on earth. And who wants to give all that power to a bunch of band dudes.) Bambara can be a polarizing. Some people just aren't down with embracing the darkness. They're not into trapping themselves in a bleak box of impenetrable, heartless noise. And that's fine. I totally understand. I get it (before writing this profile I was blasting “We Are The World" for goodness sake). Remain ye in the light, good people. But for those other people who like their music to reflect the crushing solitude of a mostly pointless existence in which the little mind-numbing tragedies like waiting in line at the post office end up slowly but surely destroying you..... Bambara just may be your new favorite band.

But remember what I said earlier. Bambara can be pretty too. That's the payoff. Don't you see? Those fleeting, floating melodies that occasionally rise up from the din of darkness and smack you in the face with tender glory. That's why I'm sticking with Bambara. For those moments. Melodic richness and soaring mercy comes to those who suffer through patiently and loudly.

The band's full length “Dreamviolence" is coming out soon. You should get it. And I should mind my own business. Anyway, I think I'm gonna go watch Mulholland Drive now and get my mind blown yet again. And then I'm going to treat myself to a snow cone or something. Snow cones always keep me from falling too far into the darkside.

Published August 13, 2013
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