100 Greatest Songs of the 20’s So Far #60 bdrmm – Clarkycat

Released: 2025

The line between shoegaze and electronica is sometimes so thin that artists are allowed to slip effortlessly between the two, a phenomenon that goes back as far and beyond as slowdive‘s 1996 album Pygmalion (Also for your consieration if Aphex Twin‘s reworking of Seefeel‘s Time to Find Me).

In that sense bdrmm’s third album Mircotonic wasn’t such an unexpected departure; started by in his Hull bedroom by Ryan Smith as a solo venture, by 2023’s I Don’t Know the now fully fledged band were openly speaking of Boards of Canada and Steve Reich as influences.

With years of touring behind them the quartet’s horizons had been broadened with mind expanding happenings; suddenly Kirkella had gone bye bye. Clarkycat was the album’s alienated, 4am in a place you no longer recognise peak. At first gloomy and foreboding before a dream pop ending, it’s lyrics were straight from a bad trip, whilst the title itself referred obscurely to an episode of the near thirty year old British comedy programme Brass Eye. Thin lines and in jokes; there are no rules any more, so just let yourself drift.