Panchiko is a British indie rock band from Nottingham, England. They were formed in 1997 by childhood friends Owain, Andy, Shaun and John. They self-produced music in their bedroom, eventually creating their first project, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L.
They made 30 CDs and gave them to their family and friends. In 2016, one of the CDs was discovered in a charity shop and then posted anonymously to 4chan, an online bulletin board, to ask for further information on the record. A fan base began to form for an unknown band. Finally, after a few years of digging up intel on the band, Owain, the lead singer, was messaged on Facebook. He was asked if he was the lead singer of Panchiko, to which he responded affirmatively, and he then told the other members. The CD was infected with disc rot, which is when CDs become unreadable because of chemical deterioration, so the songs were distorted. A friend of Andy’s found his still well-preserved copy and gave it to the band, allowing them to remaster the extended play (EP) and release the album of nine songs and four of the songs with disc rot on streaming platforms.
I discovered Panchiko on a car ride in Bolivia. D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, the first song on the album, came on my Spotify’s recommendation. We were driving down a solitary dirt road illuminated by only a couple of orange street lights. The setting complimented the song just right, and I was automatically transported to an entirely different futuristic universe.
My favorite thing about the album D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L is the sci-fi samples used in each song because they transform the lyrics, vocals and instrumentals into a dystopian story. All of these attributes pieced together make this album very unique and unlike anything I’ve listened to.
The first song, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, sounds like an opening theme for a cartoon. The samples match perfectly with the rest of the song because it is the first song of the album and the beginning of the story this album seems to create. The lyrics introduce a girl who seems to be the conflict of the whole album. The title of this song and the album are both ironic because death metal is a heavy music genre, while the album itself is soft.
The next song on the album is Stabilisers For Big Boys. The first thought that came to my head as I heard this song was “boss fight.” The samples sound like the moments before a boss fight in a video game. Again, the lyrics match the vibes of the samples. The lyrics describe a relationship with a girl that involves a lot of fighting. As the song progresses, the vocals become mildly distorted to sound furious. In the previous song, he called the girl “a harpy,” which is defined as, “a rapacious monster with the head and body of a woman but with a bird’s wings and claws.” Such descriptions illustrate the girl as a vicious beast.
Laputa is the third song in the album, and this is where I began to wonder if I really understood what this album is about. Stabilisers For Big Boys was still comprehensible, but less clear than D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L. In Laputa, it’s almost as if you are being transported to a different universe, where the samples give the impression that everything is unknown. To me, the samples are what I imagine curiosity sounds like with a sad tone. The lyrics relate to the samples because they describe Laputa, where they were taken. The definition for Laputa is “a land imagined by Jonathan Swift where impractical projects were pursued.” This is one of my favorite tracks from this album.
The Eyes of Ibad is the following track, with the coolest samples on the whole album. Somehow, Pachinko was able to create a song that makes it sound like you are fading out of existence. Something I also love about Panchiko is how their instrumentals convey emotions not present in the samples. In The Eyes of Ibad, the drums sound hopeful, while the sample sounds depressing. Once again, the lyrics also sound hopeless.
CUT, the next track, makes it sound like you are embarking on a new adventure. Then, Sodium Chloride sounds soft, light and as if all is well. The lyrics match the sounds and are comforting. Finally, Kicking Cars, another one of my favorites and the last original song on the album, returns to sounding depressing, and the vocals sound desperate. Later in the song, Panchiko experiments with screaming vocals, making the album end unhappily.
I love this album because of how unique each song is and how they all seem to work together to create a story. This is a very interesting concept, and although I wouldn’t know any specific fanbase to recommend this album to, if you are interested in an immersive and unique listening experience, then D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L by Panchiko is perfect for you.
