I Don’t Know is the second album by Hull shoegaze/dream pop quartet bdrmm. Three years on from their debut Bedroom – hailed by Clash magazine as “a heady, forward-thinking shoe gaze distillation”, the band have returned with an album that pushes their sound into new territory.
I Don’t Know is the group’s first release for Mogwai’s label, Rock Action, a partnership that came about when the two bands toured together. Recording at The Nave studio in Leeds with producer Alex Greaves (Working Men’s Club, Bo Ningen) as they had done with Bedroom, the band stuck to their recognisable effects-laden and motorik sound but added touches of piano, strings, electronica and sampling. You’ll even hear the occasional dance beat in there.
Speaking about the recording process, singer-guitarist Ryan Smith said, “We’re still coming from the same place, but the influences have got much broader.” These influences range from Radiohead to My Bloody Valentine to the Cure to Brian Eno and the minimalist classical of the likes of Erik Satie. Jordan (bass, keyboards), the younger brother of Ryan, said he has been checking out the likes of Steve Reich and Boards Of Canada and that the process is, “…just us gaining confidence, and also not wanting to retread old ground. We’d made the guitar record. So we were thinking, ‘What else can we do?’”
Musically, bdrmm experimented with everything from “pure atmospherics” to eight-minute songs. Lyrically, however, the band sought to expand on and develop existing themes. On Bedroom, Ryan Smith wrote mainly from a personal perspective and covered relationship break-ups, substance abuse and mental health, issues many people can relate to after three years of the pandemic, war and economic crisis. This time, the songs still come from a personal place but are more wide-ranging and universal.
“Everything’s still probably based on things that have happened to me,” Ryan explains, “but I’m writing more ambiguously, so that it can be understood by others in whatever situation they’re going through. I always think the first record feels like one person’s relationship, whereas this is so much broader, and can be interpreted in different ways.”
bdrmm’s love of Radiohead and Ride comes through on the mysterious single “It’s Just A Bit Of Blood”, which darkly asks someone “Where do you get off?” “We Fall Apart” oozes krautrock-pop while “Advertisement One” also delivers a pop sound you can move to.
“Hidden Cinema” is one of bdrmm’s most hauntingly vulnerable songs to date, a raw and honest admission of personal imperfections and failures. Album closer “A Final Movement”, which comes in at an epic eight minutes, may be the most ambitious thing the band has done and done beautifully at that.
I Don’t Know is another triumph for a band that is thankfully discontent with doing the same thing twice. With these new songs behind them and a UK/Ireland tour having just begun, expect to hear much more of bdrmm in the near – and far – future.
bdrmm on tour and more
Check out bdrmm’s upcoming gigs and grab your tickets here.
For merch and records, visit the band’s Bandcamp profile and for regular updates on what the guys are at, check out the band’s Instagram.
G.M
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