Essence!

The Pole Star of Eden

Track 01 from 'Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came' LP Avalanche Recordings 2013 / AREC027 / Sept 24th Worldwide release Vinyl/CD/Digital

Homesick

About 'Love on My Mind'

If the start of the breakthrough for Bambara was the radically reimagined sound of 2018’s Shadow On Everything (dubbed by NPR a “western gothic opus”), then the moment it truly arrived was on the cinematically riotous noir-punk of 2020’s Stray. In the UK, buoyed by the enthusiasm of 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq (who called the band, “one of his favourite discoveries of the year”), the band rose sharply, immediately selling out shows across the country. Meanwhile, back in their native US, KEXP’s John Richards echoed the same sentiment. Things were set. In fact, tickets had just gone on sale for their biggest show to date, a 1500 cap headliner at London’s Electric Ballroom.

Then…well, then same as for everyone. Shutdown, lockdown, hibernation, nothing. It was a hammer blow. But rather than rue their misfortune, the band desperately tried to turn it into a positive, immediately moving to try to make more, and – they were determined - better, music. The result is the career-high 'Love On My Mind' – a six song mini-album, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer - that condenses all the energy and darkness that has made Bambara so compelling but rearranges them into something defiantly new.

Not that getting there was easy. With the band’s core (twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, the singer and drummer, and childhood friend William Brookshire, bass) scattered across the US, they remotely pieced together an EP but as soon as it was finished, they scrapped it. In their words, it felt “dishonest”. They were striving for something new and they hadn’t hit the mark. They realized they needed to change approach so at that point they decided to reconvene in New York. Finally, things started to take shape.

By now, they had a better idea of where they wanted to head. They knew they wanted to include a couple of duets and enlisted the vocals of Bria Salmena (Orville Peck/Frigs) and Drew Citron (Public Practice). They also wanted to expand their sound palette so turned to Jason Disu and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) to add trombone and saxophone respectively. They recorded again, utilizing all these new elements, sampling their recordings as they went along, in the process manipulating the sounds across the mini album. The final result is something astonishing.

Opening track, “Slither in the Rain,” all hissing high-hat and spectral synthlines, is a true statement of intent. It’s minimal and atmospheric, foregrounding Bateh’s raw vocals as he introduces one of 'Love On My Mind’s main characters, years after the events of the album are over, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and dances a two-step in the pattern of a figure-8. While Bateh has always been adept at character sketches, here we are introduced to a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and causes the songs to hit on a more human level. It’s a change he readily acknowledges.

“The lyrics for Love on My Mind are a little more personal,” he admits, “and definitely more vulnerable and human. There’s more of a focus on realism. I think part of that was because I’d become zoned in on photography during lockdown. Being in NYC without being able to actually experience it made me search for representations of the way it feels to be running around in the city. And I found that in photographs. Mainly, Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin. This also influenced the decision to make one of the characters in the story a photographer, presenting pieces of the story through her snapshots.”

BUY LP

Bambara - Birds (from the album 'Love on My Mind' out 2/25)

Into Her Final Sleep - Heressence

2nd single from Dead Leaf Echo's EP  "Milk.Blue.Kisses.And.Whalebone.Wishes"

Moon Sounds Records 
onewithwavemusic ASCAP 2022

Milk.Blue.Kisses

On Fast Idol, LA-based Black Marble reaches back through time to connect with the forgotten bedroom kids of the analogue era, the halcyon days of icy hooks and warbly synths always on the edge of going out of tune. Harmonies are piped in across the expanse of space, and lyrics capture conversations that seem to come from another room, repeat an accusation overheard, or speak as if in sleep of interpersonal struggles distilled down to one subconscious phrase. At the same time, percussive elements feel forward and cut through the mix with toms counting off the measures like a lost tribe broadcasting through the bass and tops of a basement club Soundsystem.

Somewhere

“The following story might be bullshit (drug use and memory enhancements)
Years ago I was sitting at home staring into the middle distance and the phone on the wall rang (that should denote how long ago this was). On the other end was the booker from The Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, who had never called me before. She was excited about the show they had that night and was calling people to invite them. Apparently the night before a band called Laddio Bolocko had played and were so mesmerizing, so strong that they had offered them the next night, which was open. I was intrigued as no band had ever warranted this invite previously to my knowledge. This was new and exciting territory.

I had my ass & ears handed to me that evening. Scorching, pummeling, deep waters ran over me as I stood, beer in hand, mouth open. My memory may be embellishing but I remember a sax as big as me, drums that were physically hanging on by a thread, and twin electric strings that reeled sinister sprites over my head in outwardly circular patterns. Aggressive, far out fractals burned in my brain. I had never seen anything like this band, and never have again.

That’s why it’s so shocking to wait around all these years for someone to pick up the thread and re-release these 3 perfect recordings on LP for the first time…and still be waiting. So, I’m happy to announce, Castle Face is here with a 3xLP remedy. We’ve been working with all the original members of Laddio Bolocko and sifting through  to put together this concise LP box set of what is arguably their strongest home studio recorded material. Included here (for the first time on wax) are “Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko”, “In Real Time” and “As If By Remote”

Includes former members of Dazzling Killmen, Panicsville, the Psychic Paramount, and Mars Volta.
For fans of Can, This Heat, The Residents, improvisation (really they are hard to compare, they are so singular in sound)” - John Dwyer

It’s out on Castle Face Records May 20th

'97-'99

Laddio Bolocko - Nurser

The Fair Sex - The Pain That No One Knows

Hello Winter solace 
Winter solace skittles frozen 
Bitten into gold 

It feels good to be alive 
Im here for the love   
I made it i n time 
Im loving everything this gift  
ill pick you a rose 

I keep running circles in my head  
I keep going into this illusion 
Paranoia getting the best of it
Im a diagnosed special alien 
Keeping this animal at bay 
I keep running around 
I can’t stay on the ground 

Walking to the winter solace 
winter solace 
winter solace 
Ive been waiting for this 
winter solace 
winter solace

winter solace

Produced, written and performed by D I I S T
Mastered by II HE II 
Album: Night 2015 
Lyric: Johny Joc / Eve Jir 
promo: Johny Joc / Eve Jir

photo by Eve Jir

Night

dive

Álbum "Picture One" 1988
Coldwave 
Francia

Asylum Party - Before The Smile

Gong Gong Gong, Bambara, Holy Motors, Public Practice, Lily Konigsberg, Bush Tetras, Profligate, Palberta, Urochromes, Macula Dog, David Vassalotti, The Sediment Club, Horoscope+

We are in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Bambara - Birds (from the album 'Love on My Mind' out 2/25)

Wharf Cat Records

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