Hull four-piece Bdrmm, named for their roots as frontman Ryan Smith’s bedroom project, consider themselves musical (arguably also social) outliers but in recent years have found a welcoming home at Mogwai’s Rock Action imprint. New album Microtonic is their second for the label and third overall, and continues the slow march from their shoegaze beginnings into electronic territory. The use of effects and distortion has been pared back, if not excised entirely, and while they’re not quite losing it in dancefloor ecstasy, they are at least now staring outwards at a bleak reality which only confirms Smith’s anxiety-ridden worldview. If only he had some sort of cathartic channel for his angst…

He initially cedes vocal duties to Syd Minsky-Sargeant of fellow Yorkshire artists Working Men’s Club who intones over post-rock drones and electro judders on opening track ‘goit’. The industrial minimalism of ‘John On The Ceiling’ resolves into a lighter indie-synth canter but the wan Slowdive-meets-Sigur Rós balladry of ‘Infinity Peaking’ drags somewhat, as Smith wrestles with being good to himself. In contrast, the gothic electro-pop of ‘Snares’ is fitted with a joyous trance-inducing dancefloor coda.

The prowling post-punk of ‘In The Electric Field’, featuring rich guest vocals by Olivesque, goes all-out shoegaze indie rock in the style of their label bosses, while deep pulses and bell-like synths give way to a mountainous fuzz bassline and slash-and-burn guitars on the title track. Brass Eye fans will recognise the title ‘Clarkycat’ as a reference to a bogus drug in one of the show’s notorious sting sketches. The effects, as imagined here, including twinkling notes, ravey stabs and plangent indie guitar all cut across a brooding synth-pop soundscape beamed in from the early 80s. Not such a bad trip after all. 

Microtonic is released by Rock Action Records on Friday 28 February.