The quartet from Hull opens up new perspectives on shoegaze – and ends up in a dilemma.
Just listen to the bass. How it sometimes pulsates, then sneaks around the guitar again, supports the drums and then thwarts them, sometimes pads them out and sets a counterpoint. bdrmm may be one of the very last sensations in shoegaze, but the genre delivers one thing above all: over the stoic rhythm, the meandering instruments and voices mutate so much that you want to perceive small changes as big events.
It’s fun, with eyes closed and full of attention, but the quartet from Hull is sometimes even too varied on their second album I DON’T KNOW, doesn’t shy away from piano riffs and atonal electro beats, but opens up new perspectives for a style whose attraction is precisely its stylistic monotony. A dilemma that bdrmm know how to resolve into bassy humming pleasure.