Bambara are back with their first full-length album in five years, Birthmarks, which will be out March 12 via Wharf Cat in North America and Bella Union in the rest of the world. (This will be their release first for Bella Union, the label run by Cocteau Twins’ Simon Raymonde.) They co-produced it with Graham Sutton of Bark Psychosis and it features contributions from Madeline Johnston (Midwife), Emma Acs (Crack Cloud), saxophonist Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers), and more. The band call it “a wild, adventurous suite of songs that follows a host of lost characters caught in a multi-generational cycle of love, violence and rebirth.”
The first single is “Pray to Me” which is the kind of driving, anthemic, cinematic and darkly romantic song that Bambara do so well. Frontman Reid Bateh describes it like this: “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. The music barrels along with a raucous mania mirroring the one-eyed man’s spiraling psyche as it begins to whirl toward a murderous climax.” You can watch the video, directed by William Hart, below.
Bambara also have announced spring UK/EU tour dates and those are listed below.
Bambara’s previous album was 2020’s fantastic Stray, though they did release an EP in 2022.
Birthmarks
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
04/16/2025 – Nantes, FR – Stereolux
04/18/2025 – Tilburg, NL – Roadburn Festival
04/19/2025 – Esche, LU – Out Of The Crowd Festival
04/22/2025 – Brighton, UK – Komedia
04/23/2025 – Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds
04/24/2025 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
04/25/2025 – Glasgow, UK – Room 2
04/26/2025 – Salford, UK – The White Hotel
04/28/2025 – Bristol, UK – The Fleece
04/29/2025 – London, UK – The Garage
05/01/2025 – Brussels, BE – AB Club
05/02/2025 – Groningen, NL – Vera
05/03/2025 – Hamburg, DE – Molotow
05/06/2025 – Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn
05/07/2025 – Oslo, NO – Blä
05/09/2025 – Copenhagen, DK – Loppen
05/10/2025 – Berlin, DE – Lido
05/12/2025 – Munich, DE – Ampere
05/13/2025 – Cologne, DE – Helios 37
05/14/2025 – Reims, FR – La Cartonnerie
05/15/2025 – Paris, FR – La Maroquinerie