The Bedrooms – Passive Viewing LP (Domestic Departure)

The Bedrooms are a post-punk/new wave band established in Portland, Oregon, that has been on my radar for quite some time. The band is pretty much active, and so far they recorded a couple of recordings such as Dystopia Today, which has been published on the cassette in 2016, and Dystopia Today EP, that has been published digitally through various streaming services in 2018. The band steadily gathered faithful admirers of their magnificent work, and there is no doubt that The Bedrooms possess certain features, mainly showcased through impressive amounts of melancholic guitar progressions. Passive Viewing is their profoundly anticipated debut full-length album comprised of nine wonderful compositions, which have been pervaded with overflowing servings of creativity and superb musicianship. The Bedrooms are entirely relying their sound on the foundations of eighties post-punk music, with pleasing elements of cold wave and goth rock sound. Their remarkably precise performance and expression reminiscent cold, dark, but a certainly impressive appearance of the eighties UK post-punk scene. You’ll probably notice the elements of Siouxie And The Banshees, Joy Division, The Cure, Bauhaus, Gang Of Four, Echo And The Bunnymen, and how The Bedrooms evoked the spirit of these bands. Passive Viewing proudly showcases how universal post-punk can be and how this spectacular genre could still pair to the contemporary trends within the punk rock scene. Beautiful melancholic melodies have been precisely presented by the piercingly clean guitar tones. These guitar segments have been deliberately covered with sumptuous portions of a reverb effect, suitable for this particular subgenre of punk rock. The bottom end sonic maneuvers have been performed by a very organic bass sound, which provides enough power to cover all the gaps between astonishing guitar melodies and boundless drumming. Nothing would be possible without an impressive rhythm section, mainly comprised of recognizable rhythms that caused this genre to be quite popular forty years ago. The immensely magnificent sound of The Bedrooms has been enhanced by undoubtfully beautiful lead female vocals, which immediately reminded me of Ian Curtis’s vocal abilities. Passive Viewing has been published on vinyl by Domestic Departure Records in only 200 copies. All the copies have been instantly sold out, but you can definitely check out their music on their Bandcamp page.