Bambara’s Reid Bateh was thinking about reincarnation. Old lives, new selves, how we carry the past with us long after the people who defined it leave us. This was not a new age awakening, but a matter-of-fact kind of reincarnation: how some version of us dies with a collapsing relationship, how we hear an ex-lover’s voice where it doesn’t belong. He began reading academic studies on reincarnation as more of a scientific possibility. And then a story began to take shape, a saga spanning decades, full of frontier violence and dive bars and electric chairs and manic zealots and women linked across generations by dreams and snakebites. To mark the announce the band are sharing the lead single and album highlight “Pray To Me.”

In support of the record the band will be touring in the UK and EU next year, North American dates will be announced soon.

Birthmarks, is Bambara’s fifth album and the follow up to their 2020 LP Stray. The LP was MADE in collaboration with co-producer Graham Sutton (These New Puritans, Jarvis Cocker) from UK experimental artists Bark Psychosis, features guest vocals by Madeline Johnston (Midwife), Emma Acs (Crack Cloud), and will be out March 14th on longtime label home Wharf Cat Records in North America and Bella Union in the rest of the world.

Birthmarks sees Reid and his twin brother Blaze (drums), alongside childhood friend William Brookshire (bass) — altogether. Five years removed from Stray, and three from their 2022 EP Love On My Mind. lead single “Pray To Me” is an example of the way the band and Sutton have re-oriented their sound. A song that went through several reinventions before surging forward on ghostly guitars and buzzing synths rather than the band’s erstwhile clamor.

Reid Bateh says of the track:

“A one-eyed man arrives at a country karaoke night with a knife in his pocket and a plan to win over Elena, the object of his obsession. His fantasy unravels when he sees her kissing a stranger at the bar.”

Bambara
Birthmarks
Tracklist
Wharf Cat/Bella Union

1. Hiss
2. Letters From Sing Sing
3. Face Of Love
4. Pray To Me
5. Holy Bones
6. Elena’s Dream
7. Because You Asked
8. Dive Shrine
9. Smoke
10. Loretta

Bambara UK & EU Tour

04/16/2024 – Nantes, FR – Stereolux
04/18/2024 – Tilburg, NL – Roadburn Festival
04/19/2024 – Esche, LU – Out Of The Crowd Festival
04/22/2024 – Brighton, UK – Komedia
04/23/2024 – Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds
04/24/2024 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
04/25/2024 – Glasgow, UK – Room 2
04/26/2024 – Salford, UK – The White Hotel
04/28/2024 – Bristol, UK – The Fleece
04/29/2024 – London, UK – The Garage
05/01/2024 – Brussels, BE – AB Club
05/02/2024 – Groningen, NL – Vera
05/03/2024 – Hamburg, DE – Molotow
05/06/2024 – Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn
05/07/2024 – Oslo, NO – Blä
05/09/2024 – Copenhagen, DK – Loppen
05/10/2024 – Berlin, DE – Lido
05/12/2024 – Munich, DE – Ampere
05/13/2024 – Cologne, DE – Helios 37
05/14/2024 – Reims, FR – La Cartonnerie
05/15/2024 – Paris, FR – La Maroquinerie

pre-order Birthmarks HERE