One of my favourite places for randomly discovering new artists was always Bandcamp, and given the platform has done a pretty good job of supporting artists recently (notable waving their fees on one weekend), I thought it was about time we should do a quick feature on another Nordic band found on that site.
The Bunkers are from Helsinki, and they were formed back in 2018 as a 5 piece band with a heavy emphasis on guitars, - noise rock which combines influences from across different genres, including postpunk and krautrock. After 2 years playing together they’ve now released their self-titled debut EP, and they even played a release show at my favourite other place to discover new underground Finnish music, the ‘Semi-Final’ music venue in Helsinki.
Opening track ‘Offside’ is the obvious stand out, because whilst it might open like it’s a heavier rock track, don’t be fooled because singer Artsy Bunkers’ vocals are easy listening and offer a catchy tune, but always accompanied by driving and increasingly frenzied guitars. ‘Keep On’ probably has more of the Krautrock influence, less obviously appealing at first listen but it has an off kilter sound which puts me a little on edge, and I mean that in a positive way.
Curiously the 3rd and 4th tracks are called ‘Isabel’ and ‘Baseball Bat Threat, thus making themselves the 2nd band to write about the subjects ‘Isabel’ and ‘Baseball’ on the same release - alongside Major Parkinson. I particularly like ‘Baseball Bat Threat’, another track carried at rip-roaring pace, not so much for the punk inspired vocals, but for the entertainingly wayward instrumental section.
There’s no denying ‘The Bunkers’ make a good noisy racket, and in tracks such as ‘Offside’ they’ve written something really easy to playlist – it reminds me one of the heavier tracks by Norwegian band ‘The Wit’ (maybe ‘Bygone Era’).