We thought we could detect a Scandinavian accent in the vocals here, and it turns out that Bypassers were formed in Finland and have spent the last year or so touring that part of the world. The next step on their plan to smash their way into the minds of music fans is to set up camp in London and show the UK what they can do. The UK can look forward to being impressed. The first song on 'Bypassers' is 'Cold Feet' which begins as a fairly routine, if enjoyable, fuzz-rock song, but by the end they've winched it up a notch and it starts to sound as though Calexico have joined them in the studio. It's an interesting sound but it works a treat. Pretty soon we learn that Bypassers don't really have a formula, and that will do plenty to help their cause. Equally influenced by grunge, shoegaze and Britpop, it's the latter that you'll think of when you hear the splendid 'Heaven Knows I Was Gonna Choose It Heaven Knows I Was Gonna Lose It'; it's like early Oasis but with the horrible laddish arrogance removed.
If further proof was needed that this trio were Anglophiles then the updated '60s guitar-pop that they whip out for 'How Do You Feel When Nothing Is Real' provides it, taking early psychedelia and pumping it full of scuzzy guitars and post-grunge atmospherics. It's not a sound you hear every day but it's one that works incredibly well, plus it makes them sound absolutely huge. The chiming guitars that suddenly burst into life at the start of 'What I Talk About When I Talk About' again mixes those two eras and the sounds of the guitar bands that defined them, but here they allow the atmosphere to carry the song just a touch more, although it's still a wall of noise and actually recalls long-forgotten '90s indie band Big White Stairs. It's an ambitious track and an ambitious EP. You could probably use that word to sum up the band as a whole. You surely have to have ambition to up-sticks to another country to try and crack the concrete walls of the music industry, but Bypassers might just well manage it.
Bypassers' website
Stream or download the EP
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