British dream pop explores BDRMM launched their 2nd LP, titled I Don’t Know
last June, confirming their huge songwriting potential of their sublime 2020 debut LP Bedroom.
Ryan Smith (songwriter/vocalist) in an interview with NME: “I’d describe it as the second chapter, the themes are still the same, I definitely had to hone it in because some of my lyrics were pretty to the point. That was an important part of it though. It’s a way of vocalising my own fucking inner turmoil and sharing it with three of my best mates. They understand and they help me shape it into something that people can really enjoy. The listeners can make their own mind up and that’s what we were striving for.”
Fabulous symphonic single ‘It’s Just A Bit Of Blood’
Last week they played in Antwerp, Belgium and it was one of the best gigs I saw this year.
And for them one of the best they played in 2023, as Smith said at one point ‘this is fucking surreal’. It wasn’t about copying/pasting the LPs’ highlights. Not all, they build a titanic and astounding wall of psychedelia sound that got the crowd into a trance from start to finish. Awesome, just awesome.
PICTURE THIS
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Ryan Smith getting all the attention
Band: bdrmm Who: Shoegazy pop dreamers
from Kingston Up Hill
New album: I DON’T KNOW
Second one following their arresting
2020 debut Bedroom.
Ryan Smith (songwriter vocalist in an interview with NME: “I’d describe it as the second chapter, the themes are still the same, I definitely had to hone it in because some of my lyrics were pretty to the point. That was an important part of it though. It’s a way of vocalising my own fucking inner turmoil and sharing it with three of my best mates. They understand and they help me shape it into something that people can really enjoy. The listeners can make their own mind up and that’s what we were striving for.”
(Press photo)
Uncut Magazine about I Don’t Know: “bdrmm have expanded their sound, retaining that youthful energy and combining it with ambition and impressive marshalling of dynamics that creates a strangely serene album.” Score: 8/10.
TUTV‘s impressions: I Don’t Know is a wondrous joyride for daydreamers, a spacey trip with starry-eyed pop symphonies (Alps / A Final Movement) and moony wanderings (Be Careful / Advertisement One). Less shoe-gazing than before, more Pink Floyd-esque cinematic than before and some Radiohead turbulence here and there. I do know this Hull team is here to stay. So should you.
Info: “Formed into the early hours of 2017, Hull (UK) based Ryan Smith left
his bedroom to stage a band called bdrmm. They produce a slimy cocktail of
synth-soaked Beach House, jangly slackers DIIV and otherworldly shoe-gazers Slowdive. They combine a knack for weaving dreamy sonic textures and
sentimental story-telling together perfectly.”
Key references: Ride, Lush, The Horrors, The Cure, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins
NME said: “This is without doubt a modern-day shoegaze classic.” Full review here. Score: 5/5
TUTV said: The glowing-and-glimmering-guitar-scapes brilliance from start to finish
is totally amazing. Double-edged emotions wrapped in sterling shoegaze symphonies performed in a sonic universe between heaven and earth. It’s a 24 carat gold piece de resistance. The perfect companion to ease your lockdown blues. Best debut of 2020.
I love the smell of rock and roll.
Here come Turn Up The Volume’s
20 Knockout Tracks of 2020.
Nothing but the best! Hands down!
1. ‘State Of The Union’ byPUBLIC ENEMY (Long Island, New York)
Time to get up and leave the White House, Donald Dumped. You split the USA right down the middle, you’re a disgrace for America, for humanity and the whole wide world. GO!
Unprecedented, demented, many president’d / Nazi Gestapo dictator defended / State of the Union, shut the fuck up / Sorry ass motherfucker / Stay away from me / State of the Union,
shut the fuck up…
2. ‘Ultra Plus Ultra’ by ELEFANT (Belgium)
The Belgian sound-exploring motherrockers unleashed their second stupefying album Behajung early this year with Ultra Plus Ultra‘ as one of the dazzling highlights.
A schizophrenic sonic blast with balls. Abso-fucking-lutely cool! VREE WIJS! You betcha!
3. ‘Hot Slick’ byPINS (Manchester, UK)
A hot stuff disco stomper that should be played in all discotheques around the globe,
from one of the coolest gangs on the planet. Bad girls forever. Title track from their swirling party album. Saturday night pins fever all the way!
4. ‘Under The Spell Of Joy’ by DEATH VALLEY GIRLS (Los Angeles)
Sickly sticky like first-class glue. With an angelic choir, feet-tapping drum beats, sweaty
sax flames and a mental finale. Yes, it’s Death Valley Girls en-joy-ing themselves in a new sonic zone. Don’t resist the spell! From the rad, same titled full length.
5. ‘I Found Out’ by OFFWORLD (UK) Hard-Fi‘s frontman Richard Archer and imposing vox Krysten Cummings realized a high-powered tour de force. An epic heart and soul explosion! TOP! Waiting for the album!
6. ‘Never Ever Ever’ by BOA Vs COBRA (Belgium)
Don’t mess with charismatic frontwoman Sandy Fee who rants unambiguously about a toxic relationship from the very start when ‘Bad bad bad boy‘ bursts out of your speakers. The decibels turn up when the ablaze chorus kicks in. Stunning uppercut!
7. ‘American Dream’ by TOKYO TABOO (London, UK)
A steamy stunner with an explosive in-your-orange-face-intro, kick-starting this
clamorous jackhammer instantly with a titanic wall-of-blazing-riff hurly-burly and deafening percussion slams. YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!
Hey Mr President
You’re just a joke
Kids dodging bullets
World’s up in smoke
8. ‘Sweet’ by PORRIDGE RADIO (UK)
A towering loudQUIETloud haymaker with Margolin‘s repeating magnetically ‘I’m charming, I’m sweet and she will love me when she meets me‘. Emotive belter from the band’s excellent album Every Bad. Porridge Radio is on its way to world domination! Capeesh??
9. ‘Mr. Motivator’ by IDLES (Bristol, UK)
A riff-roaring ripper made to start crowded moshpits at gigs (for now you need to pirouette yourself bananas at home). A red-hot-blooded corker that does your head in. Hells Bells! Album: Ultra Mono.
10. ‘A Hero’s Death’ by FONTAINES D.C. (Ireland) ‘Life isn’t always empty ‘ states frontman Grian Chatten in his characteristic parlando
flow while the band grooves non-stop. Album:A Hero’s Death.
11. ‘Dark Blue’ by THROWING MUSES (California)
A firm banger driven by a solid beat with a pounding guitar groove, Kristin Hersh‘s characteristic sensual voice, and a catchy polyphonic chorus. Throwing Muses rocks!
From the band’s highly acclaimed longplayer Sun Racket…
12. ‘The Rise And Fall Of America’ byTHE MOODS (Manchester, UK)
A crystal clear stream of cutting lines as sharp as a brand-new Swiss knife. It’s The Moods‘ towering take on the bombastic American National Anthem. They rock, roar and rage. The Moods kick ass! Go home Donald Duck Trumpet!
13. Psychopath’s Monologue by THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA
A 2020 Apocalypse Now Odyssey. It all starts enigmatically with Samara reciting her Dante’s Inferno inspired poem in a haunting foreplay tone until Manimal shows up and all metallic hell breaks loose. Learn more about this year’s most intriguing act in their interview with Turn Up The Volume righthere.
14. ‘Paycheck’ by LEG PUPPY
A dizzy disco-ball drone making you jump up and down like a kangaroo on E. It goes bang, bang, bang, and bang with crazy duet vocals all over it and that psych-o-delic surf guitar riff that messes up your mind the way you like it. Dance floor blast. PAY THEM!
15. ‘A Reason To Celebrate’ by bdrmm (Hull, UK)
Delightful shoegaze rainbow. Like a nightingale symphony waking you up in the morning. From – yes, ladies and gents – the best debut LP of the year with Bedroom.
16. ‘Out Of The Shadows’ by GREAT HARE (Sweden)
From the stimulating intro on you’ll tap your feet, without even noticing it. This is the wake-up-call I want to hear when I can’t get out of my bed in the morning. You simply can’t resist this shot of adrenaline. This is what elevating pop is all about.
. 17. ‘Man Of Chaos’ by FLIGHT ATTENDANT (Nashville, US)
A feverish cracker and jaw-dropping power slam. The sensual, magnetic, and spellbinding vocals create a sort of delirious trance. And when, unexpectedly, bouncy strings kick in as a harbinger for a vibrant finish you’ll reach a sonic orgasm.
18. ‘Rainbow Records’ by OCEANOGRAPHY (Oakland, CA)
Glorious guitar pop stonker getting your aural attention from the get-go with a repetitive riff sticking immediately. Inflammable passion, scintillating ardency, and vehement fervor. Big tune, big sentiments and a big voice reminding me of Greg Dulli‘s imposing vocals at times.
. 19. ‘Maggot Line’ by THE BATTERY FARM (Manchester, UK) “We all gonna die and it’s our fault.” This is not just a punk slogan. It’s the fucking truth. Middle-finger to all those buffoons who ignore global warming, corona and The Battery Farm. NO MERCY!
20. ‘No Rock Save In Roll’ by CORNERSHOP (UK)
A rattling Stones-esque garage rocker with an unstoppable groove that makes you
want to jump in the street and have a sweet little dance (with mouth mask on).
BEDROOM is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best debut albums in ages.
A dazzling tour de force by young British shoegazers bdrmm. Since its release on
3 July I played the record countless times. Read what Turn Up The Volume euphorically wrote last monthhere.
Band: bdrmm Who: Five good boys from Hull, UK Album: Bedroom Released: 3 July 2020 – debut LP Info: “Formed into the early hours of 2017, Ryan Smith took his solo project from bedroom
to stage in what feels like an instant. Under the moniker ‘bdrmm’ the Hull 5-piece cut their
teeth across Northern venues, before releasing opening two singles, the twin-paced ‘kare’
and sprawling anti-epic ‘the way i want’. A slimy cocktail of synth-soaked Beach House, jangly slackers DIIV and otherworldly shoe-gazers Slowdive, the group combine a knack for weaving dreamy sonic textures and sentimental story-telling together perfectly.”
NME said: “Four years in the making, it’s been that long since frontman Ryan Smith wrote his first demo before clocking in for a twelve-hour shift at his local pub. Quickly growing into a five-piece, it wasn’t long before bdrmm’s bright shoegaze singles and live shows led to them signing to Sonic Cathedral, a label renowned for being a paradise of noise, and releasing their debut EP ‘If Not, When?’ last October… Vulnerability seeps through ‘Bedroom’ at every turn, but it’s veiled in a relatable beauty that’s both meditative and cleansing. bdrmm have mastered that fine art of conveying emotion through their music with a deft intelligence, and their debut immerses you with each listen and says: “Hey, it’s okay to screw up now and again – but learn from it.” A glorious and human introduction, this is without doubt a modern-day shoegaze classic.” Full review here. Score: 5/5
Key phrase: “I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to
use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” – Oscar Wilde,
Key references: Ride, Lush, The Horrors, The Cure, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins
Keywords: Believe the hype / Yesterday, today, tomorrow / Inventiveness and melodiousness / No fillers all killers / Double-edged emotions / Shoegaze symphonies performed in a sonic universe between heaven and hell / Guitarscapes brilliance
