The Predatory Wasp
If washed out guitars and dreamy vocals are rock aesthetics you enjoy, then behold! A lovely new album from Hull/Leeds shoegazers bdrmm. I didn’t hear their 2020 debut, but from what I’ve read I Don’ Know is a step up in terms of the scope of its production. Be Careful came out a single a month or so ago, but it’s new to me so may be to you as well.
Nabihah Iqbal’s new album DREAMER arrived last week, nearly 6 years after her debut Weighing of the Heart. That gap was due to her studio being burgled in early 2020, with her gear and work – including her new album – all taken. DREAMER see’s Nabihah reflect on these experiences, and was produced with a vastly reduced suite of instruments – not that you’d necessarily be able to tell from the results, which are rich and expansive, encompassing shoegaze, post-punk and the more experimental electronica with which she name her name. In Light opens the album, beautifully setting a hazy, dreamlike tone which continues throughout.
A welcome return to Portland duo Mint Julep on the blog today, who follow up last month’s A Rising Sun with an even more emphatically lovely slice of dreamy pop/shoegaze. Pulse builds from a steady kick drum and shimmering guitars to an all-consuming climax of astonishing intensity, with Hollie’s ghostly vocal a calming, spine-tingling presence throughout. Definite shades of Beach House at their most emphatically emotional. Plus: their new album A Deep And Dreamless Sleep lands next week. Happy daze indeed.
https://mintjulep.bandcamp.com/album/in-a-deep-and-dreamless-sleep
The Predatory Wasp 