Saturday
Museum
Building on the momentum of their 2022 EP ‘Motorbike’, Blue Bendy are stretching out into vast new sonic terrain. Their following two singles, ‘Mr. Bubblegum’ – a joyously intricate piece of experimental guitar pop – and the frenetic, propulsive yet incredibly deft sprawl of ‘Cloudy’, saw the band reach new heights creatively. Of the former, The Guardian enthused: ‘indie is riddled with addled, verbose frontmen right now, but none so rapturous as Blue Bendy’s Arthur Nolan: here he dances all over splayed post-rock and micro-cataclysms.’
Having toured as main support for Squid and Cola, as well as playing packed out tents at festivals like End of the Road and Green Man, Blue Bendy have struck a balance between being obviously skilled musicians, writing complex, layered, overlapping and ambitious compositions, while also utilising space, breadth, and restraint. Their music is bursting with dynamism, exploring push-pull dynamics that result in something ceaselessly unpredictable. The end product is a something rare for a new band: as experimental as it is confident and assured, as tender as it is visceral, as quiet as it is loud, as bloody as it is teary.