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From left to right: Callan Dwan, Peter Mercer and Taro Yamazaki of Bleary at Drkmttr, photos by Ash Richter (2022).

Bleary put out a record, Gates, through Cold Lunch Recordings in 2019, and are presently working on recording a new one. I had been listening to Bleary for quite a while before I was finally able to catch one of their sets, and was not at all disappointed. Fuzzed out and guitar heavy songs like “Sour,” come across so well in a live setting, and the live vocal doubling is flawless.

The songwriting on Gates has such wonderful ear-worm melodies, as a fan I am excited to see the progression of this band as they continue to write and release more music. Paired with their undeniable pop sensibility and writing chops, the band has a firm grasp on tone, and is unafraid to get noisy.

The writing style is romantic, and lyrics paint naturalistic imagery posed alongside urban/human imagery in songs like “Divine Proportion.”

Although the recordings evoke more Slowdive, full band dream pop/shoegaze the recent live sets with drum machine have been reading more like Au Revoir Simone, potentially with a more krautrock/electronic sound and they are definitely pulling it off.