SWARM, by Bambara

SWARM

by Bambara

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Ащ A grim enveloping fog that aggressively chokes you.
this album is a masterpiece Favorite track: Black.

Gwynplaine de Pétroleuse Dialing just a tad back on the noisiness of previous releases SWARM is still a hard rocking and erratic Industrial Punk hell ride. Sounding like the product of a ketamine session between Sonic Youth and The Cramps SWARM will blow your ear drums out and tug at your heart strings. Favorite track: Filled Up With Night.

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//RRRhund\ "Swarm" is carried by an excellent blend of death rock, noise rock, and post punk vibes (Birthday Party + Swans + Iceage). Atmospheric and violent at the same time.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
SWARM LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
The record is a limited run of 500 and comes with a download code and an insert.

Includes unlimited streaming of SWARM via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Clearing Out The Weeds 03:00	lyrics	buy track

2.	Her Sister Touya 02:53	lyrics	buy track

3.	An Ill Son 04:08	lyrics	buy track

4.	Black 02:56	lyrics	buy track

5.	Like Waves 02:39		buy track
6.	I Don't Mind 02:04	lyrics	buy track

7.	Filled Up With Night 02:51	lyrics	buy track

8.	It's Nothing 03:13	lyrics	buy track

9.	All The Ugly Things 02:05	lyrics	buy track

10.	I Can't Recall 01:08		buy track
11.	In Bars 01:48		buy track
12.	As Her 02:18	lyrics	buy track

credits

released April 1, 2016

Bambara is Reid Bateh, Blaze Bateh and William Brookshire.

Lyrics by Reid Bateh.

Recorded by Ben Greenberg at Gary's Electric in Brooklyn, NY, in October 2014.

Additional engineering by William Brookshire and Davey Jewell.

Mixed by Bambara. Mastered by Neal Warner.

Additional vocals on "It's Nothing" by Rachel Barnhart and Kerry Santullo.

Album art by Blaze Bateh.

license

about

Bambara Brooklyn, New York

NORTH AMERICA BOOKING:
Christian.Bernhardt@unitedtalent.com

REST OF WORLD BOOKING:
matthew.cooper@13artists.com

MANAGEMENT:
jamesoldham@roughtrademanagement.com ... more

shows

May 22

Paradiso

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jul 29

Hare & Hounds

Birmingham, UK
Jul 30

Yes

Manchester, UK
Jul 31

Stereo

Glasgow, UK
Aug 01

Sneaky Pete's

Edinburgh, UK
Aug 02

Sneaky Pete's

Edinburgh, UK
Aug 03

The Cluny

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Aug 05

The Sound House

Dublin, Ireland
Aug 05

Fistral Beach & Watergate Bay

Newquay, UK
Aug 05

Boardmasters Festival

Cornwall, UK
Aug 07

The Bullingdon (The Bully)

Oxford, UK
Aug 08

Clwb Ifor Bach

Cardiff, UK
Aug 11

Heartbreakers

Southampton, UK
Aug 12

Chalk, Brighton

Brighton, UK
Aug 13

Boileroom

Guildford, UK
Aug 14

Bedford Esquires

Bedford, UK
Aug 15

The Cookie

Leicester, UK
Aug 17

Picture House Social

Sheffield, UK
Aug 18

The Trades Club

Hebden Bridge, UK
Aug 19

Jimmy’s

Liverpool, UK
Aug 20

The Sugarmill

Stoke On Trent, UK
Aug 20

Green Man Festival

Brecon Beacons, UK
Oct 19

The Junction

Cambridge, UK
Oct 19

The Junction

Cambridge, UK
Oct 21

Norwich Arts Centre

Norwich, UK
Oct 23

Rescue Rooms

Nottingham, UK
Oct 24

Brudenell Social Club

Leeds, UK
Oct 26

Thekla

Bristol, UK
Oct 26

Thekla

Bristol, UK
Oct 27

The Dome, Tufnell Park

London, UK

discography

Stray

Feb 2020
Shadow On Everything

Apr 2018
Bambara on Audiotree Live

Jul 2018
SWARM

Apr 2016
DREAMVIOLENCE

Apr 2013
NIGHT CHIMES

Aug 2015
RINGS

Mar 2012

contact / help

Contact Bambara

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Track Name: Clearing Out The Weeds: I cleared the weeds off of her home
I tore the seams of all of your (her) clothes
I stole the seeds out of her bowl
I broke the mattress springs just like chicken bones

There was a time I walked freely in the night
And I kissed you in alleys and bars
Yeah I felt every sting of desire
But it’s gone.

I killed the bees with the rusty garden hose
Fell to my knees like I was before a throne

I can’t see anything
Inside the box you left with Touya’s things
Just some of your hair, and pieces of string
tied to a shard of glass
But I’ll take it with me
Yeah I take it

There was a time I walked freely in the night
And I kissed you in alleys and bars
Yeah I felt every sting of desire
But it’s gone.

I suck down a drink and sink into that hole
I wait for the dream to hit me like a stone
Where I sprout wings and hover all alone
Track Name: Her Sister Touya: Well I’m standing here again
But it’s not the same as it was back when your father was in the pen
Its empty now
And the hives have all been knocked loose from where they’d been
Yeah they’ve fallen down

We’d watch her from the roof
Watch Touya scream and dance around on her small muscular feet
Till she’d fall down

“Her sister, Touya, lived behind the apartment building down the street
She sat there fat and naked all tangled up in weeds
But she seemed happy on her dirty mattress swatting at the bees.”

“I’m not a stranger” I said.
Touya did a little spin

Rat shit rides the wind on black plastic bags
And I’m looking down
Where I put my fingers in your mouth while Touya waved her legs like flags
I’m hunted now
Yeah like a rabid dog but I’m not afraid. I am afraid.

Oh Touya I see you smiling in your filth
And I see your sister She’s telling me she’s not afraid yeah she is afraid

I’m a stranger
I’m a stranger
Track Name: An Ill Son: The night when I first saw you
Your skull made all the skin on your face shine
Skin pulled so tight
Dancing with dark eyes
Like holes as black as coal
As bright as night flickering out
I have become an ill son
Your love chewed right through the rope and chicken wire
Like a pulsing fire
When they see me now they see it too
Your cheekbones push glowing domes out of my chest
Translucent and red

I can’t sleep
I’m hurting

The night I saw you dancing
Your snakes went wild when I was told they’d be asleep
Hanging down to your feet
I knew that you’d be my red glow
My sickness grown out of the night flickering out

I can’t sleep
I’m hurting

Back then. Fresh tattoo on your wrist
When you told me that–

Your father feeds you feathers
While your mother feels the weather in her bones
It’s not the wind that moans
It’s deep within the forest
And the leaves that fall before us will be consumed
They know the rules

I can’t sleep
I’m burning
Ash falls out of my mouth
And you’re not here
Track Name: Black: Can’t hide from Orion
He’s bright and mad and I’m too drunk to walk straight
I’ll just end up like his lion
Roaring weak while he beats stars into my mane

Until all I see is black

I flipped a coin in the kitchen
She started crying when she saw it was tails
She said “I guess it means that I’m moving”
Bones rolled through the bird on her wrist like wind through a veil

You better not look
back
Cause all you’ll see
Is black

“Where do you think you’ll be going?”
I mumbled quietly through my chipped front teeth
But I don’t think she could hear me
For the screech of passing trains and all the sobbing

She dropped her hands from her face
I saw her bird fall how light bends
Then I thought of Orion
And if he could fall how her bird did then
Would he bleed out like prisms
All cut up and colorful
A constellation with a crack in his skull
A constellation with a crack in his skull

She said

Better not sleep
Like that cause all you’ll see
Is black
Track Name: I Don't Mind: There’s a light I used to see
From the porch of my old house
Now I’ve heard it’s fallen down, but
I don’t mind
I don’t mind

In the backyard there is a shed that
Holds the bones of an animal I loved
All rearranged by the flood, but
I don’t mind, and
I decided

To buy the place for the smell
Cause some part of you is tied to it
Can’t remember what it is
I don’t mind
I don’t mind

There’s a face that I recall
When sleep loosens its grip
But, I can never look at it
I don’t mind
I don’t mind
Track Name: Filled Up With Night: I keep pacing around my room
But it doesn’t help
and I grind my teeth
and I tear my shirt
and I grind and I tear

And I, had that dream again
Where we stood in the park frowning in the light
Then the sun went black
and the sky turned into night
The stars cut us up like butcher knives

Outside my window. Those birds chirp like camera shutters.
The kind with the feathers your dad would collect. Their gray shit drowns the all statues around here. I forgot what they’re called. But you know I walked by the place today where I broke my fist on the bathroom wall and you threw up into the sink. On the corner of some avenue and some street. I don’t know. I don’t know.

I keep writhing around in my bed
But it doesn’t help
and I bite my lip
and I crack my knuckles
and I bite and I crack

And I, had that dream again
We we’re fucking in the back seat of your car
Then the sun blew out
And the sky filled up with night
The stars fell like hail and crushed our spines

When I was falling asleep. I heard the voice of a girl.
I couldn’t quite tell who she was over the sound of all the buzzing.
But she said my name and she brushed my hair with her sturdy fingers.
Bees stung my neck and they felt like lips . She kissed my neck and it felt like bees. Felt like her name started with a T. I don’t know. I don’t know.
Track Name: It's Nothing: I sleep through the violence of the city
But there’s a fly caught buzzing ‘round my room
And then I drink in the violence and its stench
While I hide in bars from the moon

I don’t know
I don’t know

We were hollow and heavy
Falling lightly through a dream
Then you saw something moving
I said its nothing

Through the violence of the street
I walk around remembering in fits
There was a time, while you murmured nonsense in your sleep,
that I watched a fly land on your lower lip
I clenched my fist, but I could not swing at it

I don’t know
I don’t know

Take another pull with my head thrown back
And everything is chopped up and fluid like waves
Now, slowed down, all images become beautiful
Rat tails twitch like dancing things.
Even Orion seems alright, wavering on the wet trash outside.
Wings sprout out of my lower back and I hover, buzzing, above the bar.
I look down to where you would be sitting.
Tear-streaked cheekbones.
And I see you as an old black shed.

We were hollow and heavy
Falling lightly through a dream
Then you saw something moving
I said its nothing
Track Name: All The Ugly Things: Well I came here from a place
With lots of trees and beauty for beauty’s sake

Now, metal screeches through the night
And I’m finding that I like the way it sings

I crush rats with my heel
And smile when they squeal slow like bending steel

Hear you whistle so I run
Find you bathing in the sun

I squint in it with you.
Till you–

Say something

Back home there was a flood
And I’m told my house was buried in mud

I’m drunk and dizzy here
Where all the ugly things are lit up so pretty

But Sometimes I’d like to see a girl
With flowers braided in her hair

I pass out on the train

Till you–
Track Name: As Her: I dreamed that I was her dreaming
Woke up as her and tore my shirt
Woke up as her and said my name
I dreamed that I was her dreaming
Woke up as her and bit my lip
I dreamed that I was her dreaming
Woke up as her and my licked my skin

Woke up as her and tore my skirt
Woke up as her and scratched my legs
Woke up as her and smelled my hair
Woke up as her and said my name

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