Bambara - Swarm (2023 Mix) '2016/2023

Tracks list

Now, for the first time ever – thanks to a 2023 remix from Drew
Vandenberg (Shadow on Everything, Stray) and a remaster from Carl Saff –
Bambara live-set favorites such as the brooding “An Ill Son,” the
flawlessly dynamic “Black,” and the pop-snarled “All the Ugly
Things” can be listened to at a level of audio fidelity on par with the
band’s later recordings. For fans of Bambara’s visceral and
pummeling performances, which led to extensive touring opportunities along
rising star contemporaries such as Gilla Band, Algiers, and IDLES before earning
the band their own headlining slot on multiple international tours, Swarm will
serve as a sort of missing link. Upon Swarm’s 2016 release (originally on
the great Arrowhawk Records), Brooklyn-based Bambara had been honing their
noise-rock brutalism since forming in Athens, Georgia in 2009. On Swarm, their
second full-length, the band began to pull their approach into sharp focus, and
the result was a foundational triumph. After the pure noise experimentation of
their 2013 debut Dreamviolence, here the band began to develop many of their
later trademarks. Marrying the maniacal ravings of The Birthday Party and the
brutality of early Swans with the tangled roots-punk of The Gun Club, the
spotlight started to fall on vocalist/guitarist Reid Bateh’s lyrics as
well as the “Spaghetti Western” atmospherics that would come to the
fore to such effect on later releases such as Shadow On Everything and Stray.
Tiny Mix Tapes praised Dreamviolence, the band’s first LP, by saying that
“complete, utter anguish has never sounded this good.” Swarm made it
sound even better. With these 12 songs, Bambara proved that sometimes the only
way to confront a fucked-up world is to sink to its level. As Henry Rollins
succinctly summed it up at the time, this is a “REALLY cool record.”


Tracklist:
1.01 - Bambara - Clearing Out the Weeds (2023 Mix) (3:02)
1.02 - Bambara - Her Sister Touya (2023 Mix) (2:51)
1.03 - Bambara - An Ill Son (2023 Mix) (4:09)
1.04 - Bambara - Black (2023 Mix) (2:59)
1.05 - Bambara - Like Waves (2023 Mix) (2:39)
1.06 - Bambara - I Don't Mind (2023 Mix) (2:05)
1.07 - Bambara - Filled Up With Night (2023 Mix) (2:53)
1.08 - Bambara - It's Nothing (2023 Mix) (3:14)
1.09 - Bambara - All the Ugly Things (2023 Mix) (2:05)
1.10 - Bambara - I Can't Recall (2023 Mix) (1:10)
1.11 - Bambara - In Bars (2023 Mix) (1:47)
1.12 - Bambara - As Her (2023 Mix) (2:24)

Related artists