The band Panchiko has gained immense popularity in the past few years, but the story of how they got to where they are now makes them all the more interesting. Panchiko is an Indie Rock and Dream Pop band formed in Nottingham, United Kingdom in 1997 by members singer/guitarist Owain Davies, keyboard player/guitarist Andy Wright, bassist Shaun Ferreday, and drummer John, whose last name was never known. They were influenced by many popular bands such as Radiohead, Nirvana, and The Beatles. During 1999 and 2000 the band recorded their first EP (essentially a short album) “D>E>A>T>T>H>M>E>T>A>L” which featured four songs, “D>E>A>T>T>H>M>E>T>A>L”, “Stabilisers For Big Boys”, “Laputa”, and “The Eyes of Ibad”. Between 30 and 40 copies of this EP were sent to journalists and record labels but was not very well received. Panchiko only got one response from a record label, from the label “Fierce Panda”, but they did not end up signing the band. They ended up releasing another EP titled “Kicking Cars” shortly after, which was also not well received, and shortly after this the band split up. 

One day an anonymous user found the D>E>A>T>T>H>M>E>T>A>L EP on CD at a thrift store and posted it to an online message board. A year later a user on YouTube posted the bitrot (essentially a low quality recording) version of the EP. At this point the original version of the EP was very much still considered lost media. However, fans of the EP were determined to find the original clean version. In early 2020, one of these fans found the postal code on the price tag of the original CD and found out where it was originally from. Shortly after this on January 21st, 2020 another fan managed to get in contact with Davies, to which he unfortunately stated that none of the original members had access to the album. However, after talking to friends and family, the Davies managed to find it, and after 20 years of disappearance and 5 years of searching the original clean, bitrot free version of D>E>A>T>T>H>M>E>T>A>L was found. It was released on streaming services as a full album with the Kicking Cars EP and has gained immense popularity, particularly through the title track, D>E>A>T>T>H>M>E>T>A>L which has over 80 Million streams on Spotify. However, this has not been the end of Panchiko. In addition to the official release of D>E>A>T>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, they have released many new singles, a demos album titled Ferric Oxide (Demos 1997-2001), a live album, and two entirely new albums Failed at Math(s) (2023) and Ginkgo (2025) as well as playing many concerts. The story of Panchiko’s lost album is one of the greatest in music history, and will hopefully help them achieve success and popularity for years to come.