GUNSHIP is a London band built around songs, singers and guests, so the nearest matches in the Frekvenci archive are other vocal-led acts: The Midnight for the nostalgic songwriting, Glass Apple Bonzai for a rock edge, and Cluster Buster if you care more for the dark, instrumental backdrop than the hooks.
A band with a guest list
GUNSHIP formed in 2014, according to Wikipedia, around Dan Haigh and Alex Westaway, and releases on the label Horsie in the Hedge.[1] The archive lists 18 releases from 2015 to 2025: 12 on that label and 6 self-released. Their breakout record is Dark All Day, dated 5 October 2018.[2] Vehlinggo's coverage names a saxophone turn from Tim Cappello, vocals from Kat Von D and Una Healy, a segment led by Wil Wheaton and built from fan recordings, and a voice-over by the author Richard K. Morgan.[3] Haigh called the record a "love letter" to 1980s and early-1990s horror.[3]
The release list shows how the band works: six of the 18 are dated 2018, the album, its instrumental version and four singles. Many records have an instrumental twin, such as Dark All Day: Instrumentals, and the archive's tags run from synthwave, synth-pop and retrowave to dark wave, cinematic, score and dark ambient. That split suggests two kinds of neighbour. One has singers and hooks. The other has the dark, instrumental film-trailer mood. The 2018 run of singles is also part of why the band appears on our Synthwave in 2018: the year in the archive page.
The song-led side
- The Midnight (US, 26 releases, 2014–2025) shares retrowave, pop and synth-pop tags. Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan took early inspiration from the Drive score, according to Wikipedia.[4] Try Syndicate (2025) or Endless Summer. Their circle is on If you like The Midnight: 10 artists to try next.
- Opus Science Collective (UK, 17 releases, 2014–2023) and Emil Rottmayer (UK, 23 releases, 2014–2026) are both British, with retrowave, electro and synth-pop tags: Vapor Sessions 3-4 and Oblivion.
- Glass Apple Bonzai (Canada, 18 releases, 2014–2025) is the closest to the guitar-and-synth side, with rock, electro, dark wave and synth-pop tags. Start with Bag of Bones.
- The Less Dead (Japan, 8 releases, 2018–2021) has rock and synth-pop tags; its self-released album is Simple Minds.
The dark, cinematic side
Cluster Buster (Norway, 6 releases, 2013–2021) carries instrumental, dark wave and synth-pop tags with a 0.79 similarity rating; Max Malevolence is on Future 80's Records. Ferus Melek (Finland, 11 releases, 2017–2024) mixes electro, darksynth and synth-pop: Innocence. Quântico Romance (Brazil, 2 releases, 2020–2022) rates 0.88 on dark wave and synth-pop tags, but with so few records it is a curiosity rather than a catalogue: Desejo E Luxúria.
Kat Von D is worth following on her own. After guesting on Dark All Day, she appears in the archive with the 2024 LP My Side of the Mountain, listed as synth-pop. For the darker road overall, If you like Perturbator: artists to try next maps the artists that lean harder, and What is darksynth? The heavy, horror-lit side of synthwave gives the tag context.
Smaller catalogues on FiXT and friends
Zenith Volt (US, 6 releases, 2020–2024) pairs retrowave, dark wave and synth-pop tags, with an instrumentals release on Aztec Records. The Bad Dreamers (US, 9 releases, 2018–2021) has Space and Time on FiXT Neon. Fury Weekend (Belarus, 32 releases, 2016–2024) has rock and synth-pop tags, and Robert Parker (Sweden, 16 releases, 2014–2020) is retrowave and electro on Playmaker.
None of these share a label with GUNSHIP, since the band mostly releases through its own imprint; the matches are on tags. If you want the genre context, Retrowave: the name, the sound and where it overlaps synthwave and Synthpop and synthwave: where the 1980s sound meets the revival explain where this sound sits. The Pop station (90.7 FM) is the radio route for choruses, and the Dark station (94.6 FM) covers the cinematic end.
Records to start with
- Glass Apple Bonzai · 2025 · Distortion Productions · EPThe rock-and-synth side, from 2025.
- Cluster Buster · 2021 · Future 80’s Records · LPAn instrumental, dark wave-tagged album from 2021.
Sources
- Gunship (band) (used as a map to its references) · Wikipedia
- Gunship new album out 5 October 2018 (press release) · Prescription PR, 13 Jul 2018
- Gunship: Dark All Day and The Lost Boys · Vehlinggo, 13 Jul 2018
- The Midnight (band) (used as a map to its references) · Wikipedia