Burton Badman is an interesting band. Hailing from the Mediterranean coast and based out of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, they play a unique style of alternative rock. It’s bluesy, kind of funky, yet very much hard-rock oriented with swelling guitar licks, steady driving bass, and snappy backbeat. It’s like Portugal. The Man meets Live, meets Gin Blossoms if you can even fathom that, and quite dark lyrically and theatrically in visual aesthetic. Burton Badman comes across almost Metal or Prog in lyrical content when reading the words to their songs. They definitely lean in on dark subject matter. They have just released a brand-new single, “Fields of Confusion” on October 7th. This is the fourth single that has been released in 2022 and will be featured along with the three previously released singles on their soon-to-be released full-length album, “The Opposite Way Around,” dropping November 4th.
My first impression upon hearing the new song was, “cool, I dig that, sounds like a 90s alternative song.” Then I read more into the bio, read the lyrics on Bandcamp, and watched their music video for the song on YouTube. That unlocked a whole new perspective for me on what the overall creative output is that they are projecting. The way the band describes the meaning of the new track is as such:
“The song is an intense journey into the deepest and darkest traumas that we carry with us throughout our lives, laying out a path to salvation”
Burton Badman on “Fields of Confusion”
The music video, directed by Moran Kariv, begins with nightmare-ish imagery of a woman confined to what looks like a medical exam bed or a medical exam table with bedding on it. It is implied visually that she is perhaps a patient, or maybe even an experimental test subject of some kind. In either case, it is apparent that she is there against her will, and at times is tied down to be subdued. There is recurring imagery of what I could only interpret as “doctors” or maybe “mad scientists” filling syringes to the brim for injection. Early on in the video, the shot is plunged right into her chest, reminiscent of that infamous and tense scene in “Pulp Fiction” that is embedded into our psyche. As the band plays, they are suspended by rope as if they are puppets providing a soundtrack to the madness. Throughout the video, several symbolic “authority figures” visit the patient/test-subject to further her conditioning. As the song comes to a close, the final lyrics are “sell your dreams for a gun, your dreams have died with your childhood.” All of a sudden the patient/test subject wakes up “fine” or perhaps “well” now. She approaches a mirror to observe herself, as if she is blissfully lobotomized. It appears the conditioning has worked.
The video ends. Whoa! Trippy video. The band will be performing a special concert for the album release at the Tmuna Theater in Tel Aviv on November 10th.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, Facebook, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify. If you enjoy their music and are able to provide monetary support, you might consider downloading it on Bandcamp; for virtual concerts, you can go to songkick “Live from their sofa to yours”.
It also helps to stream and share their music; you can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind, Sickest & Dopest, and Unknown But Essentials!.
Remember that you can always find me here AMS Radio for all my social media and collaborations.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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