RED VINYL.

Bambara, an extraordinary, night-inclined, modernist rock band steeped in Southern Gothic, have perfected their macabre vision with their fifth album, "Birthmarks." Working with co-producer Graham Sutton of British experimental pioneers Bark Psychosis (a man also largely responsible for the seminal records of These New Puritans), it's less a concept album than an astonishingly complex work of storytelling, featuring unforgettable characters, including the aforementioned C&W karaoke bar siren with halo hair and a one-eyed murderer begging for the electric chair—all not exactly set to music, but actually born of it.