bdrmm are a fine example of what can happen to a band over a few albums. With their early singles and (almost) self-titled debut Bedroom, they were a fine example of shoegaze, dreampop…call it what you will. By the time of their second album, I Don’t Know, they were signed to Mogwai’s own Rock Action label, and they’d brought in both ambient and electronica elements to their sound. The album reached no.51 in the UK album charts; I believe, in time to come, this will actually be a rather lowly placing for this fine band.
Meanwhile, here we are, two years later and the trajectory is still very much on the up. Within the first thirty seconds of opening track ‘goit’ (yes, all lower case!) with its beautifully gloomy European dance sounds, it’s clear that bdrmm have definitely shifted up a gear or two in making records. This is a track for both the feet and the head, and ‘John On The Ceiling’ takes over almost before ‘goit‘ finished. In fact, it’s only on the third track ‘Infinity Peaking’ that there’s a sense of the shoegaze bdrmm of old, and this crops up again on the explosive title track and ‘Sat In The Heat.’
Yet cleverly, this all feels like a rather smooth flow, rather than being too much of a jump to take in just in the place of one listen. By the time the album reaches the excellent closer, the magnificent melancholia of ‘The Noose,’ it’s clear that this is an album to be played again. There’s always been a risk (possibly beginning in the CD era, and exacerbated as downloading and streaming came in) of people cherry-picking from albums; this is Exhibit A in way this practice should be avoided if at all possible.
Microtonic is not only the best album the band have made but is also likely to be the band’s commercial breakthrough. It certainly deserves to be. (The band and public should expect greater press coverage, bigger venues and higher spots in festival bills from now on.) While in some ways it takes the very different early 1990s rave and shoegazing scenes as starting points, (think both of the first two Orbital and Slowdive albums) this end result feels fresh and exciting. The opportunity for remixers to take these tracks to new places is also there for the taking. It will be interesting to see where bdrmm go next.
