Welcome back, fellow synth-heads! After life, uh… got in the way a bit… the last couple of months, we’re back with another edition of Retrocution! This post should be enough to make up for July’s absence, because — oh hey! We’re gonna do something we should have done a long time ago, and talk about Gunship. The group’s latest full-length, Unicorn, isn’t out until the end of the month, but the advance singles they’ve released over the last several weeks have more than whetted our appetites. So let’s take a bit of a dive, shall we?

The Music:

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The “Analysis”:

While Gunship’s pretty firmly entrenched in the synth scene these days, its roots actually lie in guitar music. Founding members Dan Haigh and Alex Westaway formed the group while their then-primary gig — UK post-hardcore band Fightstar — was on hiatus. With the addition of drummer Alex Gingell, the band incorporated song structures that were more rock oriented and less influenced by dance and club music — though, okay… still danceable and catchy as all hell. (They were also one of the first few acts to convince yours truly that — oh hey! — maybe vocals in synthwave can actually be a good thing.)

Over the years, the band’s done loads to build its following. An appearance in the Rise of the Synths documentary here, some terrific anime and pixel art music videos there. Collaborations with everyone from Power Glove to John Carpenter to, uh… Kat Von D? And of course, some pretty damned good music along the way.

Listen to Gunship’s previous output — be it their 2015 self-titled album, 2018’s Dark All Day, or any of the singles or guest spots they’ve had in between — and you’ll hear, more than anything, an underlying darkness to their sonic palette. What’s impressive, though, is the variety of different ways they present that darkness.

It might show through in the almost cinematic urgency of their music: the pulsating bass synths of a track like “The Mountain,” or the eerie, reverb-drenched soundscapes of “Woken Furies.” You might hear it when the band explores its heavier side, as on Unicorn‘s latest single, “DooM Dance” or last year’s Carpenter Brut collaboration, “The Widow Maker.” Hell, you even see it in their song topics. “Cthulhu”? “Black Sun on the Horizon”? An otherwise devastatingly pretty tune that just happens to be called “When You Grow Up, Your Heart Dies”? This stuff can get dark, man!

But! It’s dark. It’s never bleak. Even if it sends a bit of a chill down your spine at times, Gunship ultimately excels at making music you can enjoy. They’re talented composers and arrangers who know just how to get the most out of every single song concept, collaboration, or guitar solo they put to record. (And also sax solos, of which there are multiple throughout their discography!) They’re simply some of the best doing it in the genre these days.

And without spoiling too much, Unicorn feels like the most Gunship album to date. It’s got the dark vibes. It’s got some terrific guest spots — Carpenters John and Brut, but also, like… HEALTH! And freaking Gavin Rossdale! It’s got a whole mess of ‘80s influences — the perfectly placed sax solos, the synth leads on “Taste Like Venom” that seem to just twirl around with abandon in your head, etc. — that the band adeptly combines into something decidedly not all that “‘80s sounding.”

It’s also got more songs than any other Gunship album to date, which… okay, admittedly, doesn’t always work in its favor. (I challenge anyone to find a 14-song album that doesn’t have a lull or two in it.) But the vast majority of this stuff is freaking great, and if you’re a fan of synth music — retro, contemporary, or otherwise — you should be checking it out.

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Unicorn will release on September 29. You can pre-order it here. For more information on Gunship, visit the band’s website.

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Other, uh… late summer synthwave highlights:

• WOLFCLUB has always kinda been hit or miss for me, but a lotta folks love ’em. Said folks will have been all over the group’s new album, Desert Hearts, which is out on NewRetroWave Records.

• Perpetually underrated PWYW synthwave / vaporwave label Business Casual dropped a couple of absolute gems back in July that, genre-wise… okay, maybe toe the line of whether to feature here. But fuck it, they’re really damn good, so check ’em out: Simple Syrup‘s Bloom and Kouek‘s Downtown.

• Prolific Los Angeles producer Sellorekt/LA Dreams — now sans random capital letters in his stage name! — dropped another excellent full-length earlier this month. This one’s called Momentum, and you should absolutely check it out.

• UK producer Emil Rottmayer has a new album coming soon, and treated us to a couple of singles from it earlier this summer. Check out “Glare” and “Navigate” STAT.

• Speaking of things you should check out STAT, holy hell, there’s a new Timecop1983 album! The Dutch legend dropped his latest album, Searching for Tomorrow, back in August. It’s great!

• And finally, the “retired” (lol) FM Attack dropped an album out of absolutely nowhere last week. Cosmic is available via Starfield Music.

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And that’ll do it for this edition! You know the drill from here: stay tuned for next, uh… month? Hopefully? … ‘s edition of Retrocution to stay up on the latest synthwave goodness. Until then…

Keep it synthy,
—Dan