Bambara in session for Steve Lamacq at BBC 6 Music – recorded at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios on October 28, 2019
Bambara formed in 2007 in Athens, Georgia, and are currently based in Brooklyn, New York. The trio consists of twin brothers Reid Bateh (lead vocals, guitar) and Blaze Bateh (drums), and William Brookshire (bass).
Bambara is named after the character of the same name from the animated television series Æon Flux. Drummer Blaze Bateh stated that “honestly there wasn’t anything in particular about him as a character that drove us to use his name. We were just huge fans of the show. I’ve watched the show start to finish countless times and I still get blown away by aspects of it. But yeah, we just thought his name sounded really cool”.
The members of Bambara began playing with each other in 2001 in Athens, Georgia when twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh and school friend William Brookshire attended North Springs High School. The trio started out playing covers of bands such as Blink-182 and Red Hot Chili Peppers before developing their own sound that incorporated “funk, progressive, and a lot of Latin”. They released their debut album Curtains and Cannibals in 2005 under their original name 23jinx.
In October 2007, the band changed their name and formed as Bambara. The band moved to Brooklyn, where they signed to Arrowhawk Records in 2013. They recorded the album Dreamviolence from their basement apartment before releasing it in April of that same year. Their music was labeled as noise rock in part due to their use of machines, loops, and other assorted lo-fi software.
By mid-2014, Bambara nearly finished their full-length LP Swarm, but had their computer stolen with all of the tracks they had recorded up until that point. This resulted in a delay for the album as the band took a break before re-recording the stolen tracks. Bambara recorded and released an experimental EP of pure noise titled Night Chimes in August 2015. The band stated that the EP helped get the noise “out of their systems” which helped in creating a more toned down version of the abrasive sounds of Swarm when the time came to re-record it. The album was released on April 1, 2016. According to Zoë Beery of The Village Voice, Swarm showcased the band’s trademark atmosphere through long reverb and distorted guitars, but with clearer production to showcase the musicality as well as Reid Bateh’s vocals.
Their style has been described as noise rock and post-punk. Noisey’s Colin Joyce described the songs as “chaotic” and “being held together with formless washes of noise and anxious vocal drones.” Marcos Hassan from Tinymixtapes listed the severity of Swans and the “depraved cabaret mold” of The Birthday Party as the sound they’ve been honing together. Reid Bateh had a transformative experience listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 1996 album Murder Ballads for the first time. Reid Bateh has mentioned the films of Wong Kar Wai and David Lynch and the moods portrayed in them as influences on their sound. Bateh also cited the Southern Gothic themes from the writings of Flannery O’Connor and Bruno Schulz] as influences on the themes in Swarm. Bateh has cited photographer Nan Goldin’s book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency as an influence to his lyrics on Love on My Mind.
Press Play and sit back – tomorrow’s Friday after all.
