Stray

One thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s album Stray is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, the key to the whole record. That though won’t be the first thing that strikes you about this, their fourth album to date. That 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.
This NYC-via-Georgia trio (the Bateh brothers, Reid and Blaze, singer and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire) have been evolving their midnight-black noise rock into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut 'Dreamviolence.' That process greatly accelerated with 2018’s 'Shadow On Everything,' their first on New York’s Wharf Cat label and a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically. Now, 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.