Microtonic is the sound of bdrmm reinventing themselves

With Microtonic, the UK-based bdrmm revisit the dreamy textures and edgy swirls of 2020’s Bedroom and 2023’s I Don’t Know, more fully adopting an electronic and instrumental emphasis.

Opening track “John on the Ceiling” places synth-y drones and accents on center stage, flirting with lite dystopianism. “Infinity Peaking” merges the celestial and foreboding, synths unfurling as alternately reverb-y and serrated. Ryan Smith channels an 80s-esque vocal delivery, crossing the ethereality of George Michael and the pop melancholia of Morrissey.

“Snares” forefronts a roil of percussion, evoking a paradoxical sense of promise and looming discontent, as electronic adornments coalesce. The effect is a notable step for the band: via inventive composition and engaged performances, bdrmm illustrate the way in which birth and death, anxiety and catharsis, and beauty and annihilation are constantly present and inseparable.

On “In the Electric Field”, guest singer Olivesque alternates between apocalyptic-sounding verses and smoother, more R&B-inflected choruses, occasionally conjuring Jojo Orme a la Glutton for Punishment. The instrumental title track features theatrical refrains, grungy chords, and melodic synth progressions, representing the band’s range. The piece exemplifies a more diversely cohesive take than we’ve heard before, bdrmm pivoting from the crystalline to the muddy, the ethereal to the hellish.

“Clarkycat” blends warbly synth sounds with driving beats. The song addresses the need to reorient, align with present conditions, and free oneself from denials and dissociative tendencies (“This terrifying oath is finally set free”). The closing minute-and-a-half or so puts the band’s repertoire on full display: plush layering, intricate interplays, and rich atmospherics.

On “Lake Disappointment”, the vocal is harsher and more urgent, as if a “slap effect” is being applied. Instrumentation, too, is earthier, brash, built around insistent beats and mercurial synths. In contrast, closing track “The Noose” is quieter, the synths burnished, clean, sustained. Even as Smith alludes to tragedy (“The noose already dropped man”), there’s a sense of beginning again, that from “the fatally flawed system” something purer, freer, more life-affirming can emerge.

Mining the essentials of their first two releases, bdrmm have thrown wide new doors, reinventing themselves. The restlessness is still palpable, as is the wistful yearning, though both have been expanded, depersonalized, and placed within a more cosmic context. Microtonic is the sound of a band faithfully heeding their muses.