Panchiko

Panchiko play Tramshed on Wednesday 14 October, presented by Clwb Ifor Bach. It's a single-band bill, with the Nottingham indie outfit taking the full slot.

If you haven't come across them before, the story behind the band is half the draw. It started on 21 July 2016, when a 4chan /mu/ user posted a photo of a mysterious demo CD titled D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, which had supposedly been released in 2000 by four musicians: Owain, Andy, Shaun and John. The recordings were plagued by disc rot — that chemical decay that eats away at old CDs — and they circulated online, sparking a global hunt. Fans scoured subreddits, Discord servers and even the Nottingham record store where the disc had allegedly surfaced, all trying to track down who was behind it.

Owain, the lead singer, was eventually contacted by the fandom and confirmed he was the real deal, proving the disc rot was authentic. The band had formed in Nottingham in the late 1990s, and they've since welcomed new members following their revival in 2020. So, while the music first reached people as a digital ghost from two decades ago, they're very much a working band now.

It's a mid-week one, so if you're heading in from outside the city, you'll want to plan for a Wednesday night. The show starts at 7:00 PM at Tramshed, 61A Clare Road, Cardiff CF11 6QP.