Luke Haines: British Nuclear Bunkers - Album Review

British Nuclear Bunkers
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Artist: Luke Haines
Genre: Alternative
Label: Cherry Red Records

One of the last surviving great British music mavericks, Luke Haines (formerly of The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, Baader Meinhof) delves further into the undergrowth with British Nuclear Bunkers.

Ostensibly, it’s a fictional concept album about a secret network of abandoned nuclear bunkers that future generations of people retreat into.

They live a Utopian dream and communicate with each other through a newfound subconsciousness.

If you think the songs reflect the ideas, then you’ll need to backtrack, for Haines has come up with a faux, mostly instrumental soundtrack that replicates Kraftwerk.

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The result (across songs such as Camden Borough Council and Test Card Forever) is a deliberately jarring piece of work that succeeds via Haines's hard neck and facility for catchy tunes.

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Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in popular culture