"read them like a book, pick out all the pages, don't skip to the end..."
Life has a way of playing tricks on you, of opening doors that could of remained closed except for some happenstance event from utter strangers. UK quartet Panchiko know this more than anyone as the rumor of their artistic death and rebirth might have different iterations the more the story is told, to avoid such morphing I need to post up this very interesting press notey thing from the band themselves.
[On July 21st, 2016, a user on 4chan’s /mu/ board posted a photo of a mysterious CD they’d found at a record store in Nottingham, UK: a rough-worn demo titled D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, purportedly released in 2000 by four musicians: Owain, Andy, Shaun, and John. The listener uploaded the ripped audio—the recordings sounded like they were plagued with disc rot—to file-sharing sites, and later YouTube, where they began circulating among internet music circles. The record’s sensationalist appeal was multifold. Was this an honest-to-God ’90s curio? A prank hatched by internet-savvy teens? An internet experiment in nostalgia, in the spirit of vaporwave? Nobody knew. So the Panchiko hive mobilized, gathering on subreddits and discord servers, examining every square inch of the packaging for potential clues, and even calling the Nottingham record store where D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L had allegedly sprung up in the first place. “I woke up one day,” recounts Owain, “and ping—there’s a message on a defunct Facebook page of mine, ‘Hello, you’ll probably never read this, but are you the lead singer of Panchiko?’” The query took Owain by shock; to his and Andy’s knowledge, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L> had never been uploaded to the internet. The Panchiko fandom finally made contact the following day, when they received their reply from Owain, a simple “Yeah.” At last, the world had confirmation: not only were Panchiko not 14-year-old kids, they were the real deal, right down to the disk rot.]
Fast forward and Panchiko is releasing their first new album in over two decades, "Failed at Math(s)", leading up to a May 5th drop date and “Portraits” (with a stunning animated video created by Shunsaku Hayashi) is the third single to be released from this rebirth of sorts.
Discussing the single Panchiko noted, "‘Portraits’ was based around the thought that each of us is the culmination of the generations that precedes us. Every experience and encounter shapes us and adds to our story. Some of the meaning behind the song covers feelings of pressure and tackling things on your own. Trying to find something you need, but finding that what you need is perhaps with you all along. We worked with the super talented animator Shunsaku Hayashi on this video, he came up with a beautiful, if somewhat unsettling video based on the lyrical ideas that Owain had been considering.”
"Portraits" sucked me in right away. The layers a combination of caustic ambience, electronica turned, at times, inside out as a counter position to barreling bass lines and psychedelic guitar leads make for a tensioned filled framework for the vocals aesthetic, that is upfront, hushed and aloof and intimate at the same time. I couldn't help but think of Billy Corgan's vocal countenance circa Siamese Dream and that is perfectly fine with me. Maybe describing this as a collision of proto punk, industrial punk, 90's indie rock, 8-bit and bedroom pop is apt like an amalgam of Kraftwerk, Telex, Brian Eno, Smashing Pumpkins, Epic Schmetterling (off the top of my head).
Bold and beautiful stuff indeed.
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KEHIUSoWCcqrk8AddTE1O
https://www.instagram.com/panchiko_deathmetal/
Panchiko, synthwave, indierock, electronica, vaporwave, indie rock, bedroom pop, alt rock, experimental, avant pop, "Portraits", new album "Failed at Math(s)",
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KEHIUSoWCcqrk8AddTE1O
https://www.instagram.com/panchiko_deathmetal/
https://panchiko.bandcamp.com/
On July 21st, 2016, a user on 4chan’s /mu/ board posted a photo of a mysterious CD they’d found at a record store in Nottingham, UK: a rough-worn demo titled D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, purportedly released in 2000 by four musicians: Owain, Andy, Shaun, and John. The listener uploaded the ripped audio—the recordings sounded like they were plagued with disc rot—to file-sharing sites, and later YouTube, where they began circulating among internet music circles. The record’s sensationalist appeal was multifold. Was this an honest-to-God ’90s curio? A prank hatched by internet-savvy teens? An internet experiment in nostalgia, in the spirit of vaporwave? Nobody knew. So the Panchiko hive mobilized, gathering on subreddits and discord servers, examining every square inch of the packaging for potential clues, and even calling the Nottingham record store where D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L had allegedly sprung up in the first place. “I woke up one day,” recounts Owain, “and ping—there’s a message on a defunct Facebook page of mine, ‘Hello, you’ll probably never read this, but are you the lead singer of Panchiko?’” The query took Owain by shock; to his and Andy’s knowledge, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L> had never been uploaded to the internet. The Panchiko fandom finally made contact the following day, when they received their reply from Owain, a simple “Yeah.” At last, the world had confirmation: not only were Panchiko not 14-year-old kids, they were the real deal, right down to the disk rot.
On July 21st, 2016, a user on 4chan’s /mu/ board posted a photo of a mysterious CD they’d found at a record store in Nottingham, UK: a rough-worn demo titled D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, purportedly released in 2000 by four musicians: Owain, Andy, Shaun, and John. The listener uploaded the ripped audio—the recordings sounded like they were plagued with disc rot—to file-sharing sites, and later YouTube, where they began circulating among internet music circles. The record’s sensationalist appeal was multifold. Was this an honest-to-God ’90s curio? A prank hatched by internet-savvy teens? An internet experiment in nostalgia, in the spirit of vaporwave? Nobody knew. So the Panchiko hive mobilized, gathering on subreddits and discord servers, examining every square inch of the packaging for potential clues, and even calling the Nottingham record store where D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L had allegedly sprung up in the first place. “I woke up one day,” recounts Owain, “and ping—there’s a message on a defunct Facebook page of mine, ‘Hello, you’ll probably never read this, but are you the lead singer of Panchiko?’” The query took Owain by shock; to his and Andy’s knowledge, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L> had never been uploaded to the internet. The Panchiko fandom finally made contact the following day, when they received their reply from Owain, a simple “Yeah.” At last, the world had confirmation: not only were Panchiko not 14-year-old kids, they were the real deal, right down to the disk rot.
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