An evening full of swirling guitars and keyboard noise with sculpted peaks and troughs. bdrmm, ably supported by Nightswimming and Lemondaze, gave us a wonderful glimpse into the world of dreampop and reminded us of the wide range of approaches under that banner.
bdrmm are a band with a lot of ideas as well as the ability to execute them. What a contrast between some of the songs on recent LP ‘Microtonic’. Take for example the softer guitar based ‘John on the Ceiling’ against the electronic underpin of ‘Snares’. Both great songs but soundalikes they arent. Hints of darkwave and a sinister sound can be instantly replaced by hard crashing guitar and screaming synth yelps which in turn is replaced by a soothing vocal over a pop riff, for example ”In the Electric Field”. Amazing vision and the ability to play it perfectly too.
Now on their third LP, so there’s plenty of back catalogue to explore. We don’t often highlight such matters, but we had full value for our entrance money here. bdrmm played for 90 mins to add to the two 30 min slots from the support bands.
Lemondaze, who we had not seen before, played their instruments a bit harder than Nightswimming. Some early sound issues did not put them off and they crashed through a short set, but made an impression on the crowd who enjoyed the higher tempo swirling guitar psychedelic sounds.
Nightswimming, favourites on the 1BH stereo, caressed and plucked at their guitars to create a beautiful sonic landscape. By design, a little less rock n roll than the bands after them, everything about their sound is cool and dreamy. Worthy of your attention, they are just beginning to get airplay and you owe it to yourself to have a listen.
One Big House 