Choices Of The Grasshopper October 2019

One Hard Task

"Bloom" from the album Four of Arrows
out October 25th via Double Double Whammy

Four of Arrows

Great Grandpa - Bloom

Voices

Seeker

I’ve Got Reason

Taken from the album 'Crush', released 18 October on Ninja Tune: https://floatingpoints.lnk.to/crushSo

Follow Floating Points -
Spotify: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-sp
Apple Music: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-am
Instagram: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-ig
Facebook: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-fb
Twitter: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-tw
Youtube: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-yt
Bandcamp: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-bc
Soundcloud: https://found.ee/floatingpoints-sc

Crush

Anasickmodular

Parties

One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s Stray is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, abstract and personified  – perhaps the key to the whole record. Death, however, won’t be the first thing that strikes you about the group’s fourth – and greatest – album to date. That instead will be its pulverising soundscape; by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times – on stand out tracks like “Sing Me To The Street” and “Serafina” – simply overwhelming
 
Bambara – twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, singer/guitarist and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire – have been evolving their midnight-black noise into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut Dreamviolence. That process greatly accelerated on 2018’s Shadow On Everything, their first on New York’s Wharf Cat Records and  a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically. 
 
The album was rapturously received by the press, listeners and their peers. NPR called it a “mesmerising...western, gothic opus,” Bandcamp called the "horror-house rampage" "one of the year's most gripping listens," and Alexis Marshall of Daughters named it his “favorite record of 2018.”  Shadow also garnered much acclaim on the other side of the Atlantic. Influential British 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq, dubbed them the best band of 2019’s SXSW, and Joe Talbot of the UK band IDLES said, "The best thing I heard last year was easily Bambara and their album Shadow On Everything."  The question was, though, how to follow it?
 
To start, the band did what they always do: they locked themselves in their windowless Brooklyn basement to write. Decisions were made early on to try and experiment with new instrumentation and song structures, even if the resulting compositions would force the band to adapt their storied live set, known for its tenacity and technical prowess. Throughout the songwriting process, the band pulled from their deep well of creative references, drawing on the likes of Leonard Cohen, Ennio Morricone, Sade, classic French noir L’Ascenseur Pour L’Echafraud, as well as Southern Gothic stalwarts Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews.
 
Once the building blocks were set in place, they met with producer Drew Vandenberg, who mixed Shadow On Everything, in Athens, GA to record the foundation of Stray. After recruiting friends Adam Markiewicz (The Dreebs) on violin, Sean Smith (Klavenauts) on trumpet and a crucial blend of backing vocals by Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivry-Block (Palberta), Bambara convened in a remote cabin in rural Georgia, where Reid laid down his vocals.
 
The finished product represents both the band's most experimental and accessible work to date. The addition of Citron and Ivory-Block’s vocals create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s commanding  baritone on tracks like “Sing Me to the Street”, “Death Croons” and “Stay Cruel," while the Dick Dale inspired guitar riffs on “Serafina” and "Heat Lightning" and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listens.
 
While the music itself is evocative and propulsive, a fever dream all of its own, the lyrical content pushes the record even further into its own darkly thrilling realm. If the songs on Shadow On Everything were like chapters in a novel, then this time they’re short stories. Short stories connected by death and its effect on the characters in contact with it. “Death is what you make it” runs a lyric in “Sweat,” a line which may very well be the thread  that ties  these stories together.

BUY LP/CD

Bambara - Serafina (from the 'Stray' album out 2/14)

Mango

Lie Out Loud

Go Out With You

Evacuate

Natural, Everyday Extended Play

Romeo

TURN OFF THE LIGHT

There Will Be Blood

Self Released 01/10/2019
Songwriters: Millie Duthie, Mitch Duce, Danny Southwell, Dan Hole 
Engineer/Producer: Josh (Hoagie) Harrison
Artwork: Sapphire Needham
MGMT: mhowes@theorchard.com

Two Sense

“Dice” is the forth single from Norwegian duo Konradsen’s debut album, Saints and Sebastian Stories, due out October 25, 2019 on Cascine and Su Tissue.

Saints and Sebastian Stories

Dice

Nothing Lasts

The single ‘Give You The World’ has been played on BBC Somerset, BBC Introducing in Devon & Cornwall and has been featured on multiple blog websites including ‘Indie Buddie’ where the song is described as having ‘enough gusto to ignite a live audience’ and being ‘a cracking pop rock number’.

Last One Home - Give You The World

Gentle folk inspired by nature, written by singer songwriter Les King. Performed by UK duo, Les King and Andrea Webster. Tracks available from https://bandcamp.com/silwinders

Softness

Order this issue of Decibel featuring this exclusive OPETH flexi disc here: https://store.decibelmagazine.com/collections/back-issues/products/november-2019-181

Opeth "Cirkelns Riktning" (dB107)

Nobody From Nowhere

I perked up my ears when I heard your name, I perked up my ears when our spirits gave / And I would love to see your soul standing next to me / And when you're looking back on the tough side of life, it's the first day of december. And on the marching beat stands aside in the crowd a lone pretender. And when you're looking back on the first sight of life, it's the first day of december. They took our truths and sold them as lies but they're too old to even remember / My left wing broke when I saw the shining knight, my left wing broke in the middle of the night / This empire won't stand a chance if it's built on free labour, and old Herzog at first glance thought this empire would be his son's saviour / And when you're looking back on the tough side of life, it's the first day of december. And on the marching beat stands aside in the crowd a lone pretender. And when you're looking back on the first sight of life, it's the first day of december. We've done our wrongdoings, but we can tell who's the main offender.

Choices Of The Grasshopper October 2019

The Grasshopper 💚