Deathsquad

"One of the roughest digi-punk bands of the last 10 years" DSO, aug 07. "Like hitching a ride in the back of a pick up truck, with a flat tyre, and a demented 40 yr old student" Holly Hernandez, Melody Maker, aug 99. "Noteworthy for fans of punky post-rock with a decidedly experimental edge" Charles van de Kree, Aural Innovations, march 04. This page is a living tribute to the on/off noise fuseniks of the early 90's/early 00's to now. Created at the fag end of middling university careers within humble beginnings in an attic bedsit in Ealing Broadway, West London in late 1993, Deathsquad grew to produce many lo-fi, anarchic and political statements within the realms of exotic and often crude punk rock samplings, death metal and electronica. Both band leaders Thug D and Lord Blade spawned a myriad of bastard offspring bands and side projects to boot, not unlike many of their post punk heroes of the early 80..s. Most of the Ealing recordings were snatched there and then, and there was little product control, resulting in anything from unlistenable mayhem to one off electronic genius recorded in one take. The Ealing, Hammersmith and Acton gigs of the time go down in deathsquad lore as some of the most controversial performances of the age with a fuzzled mythology rising somewhere between the truth and dare !: needless to say, it has been well over a decade since the original duo last hit the live stage, despite countless attractive offers to hit the circuit. Instead the band concentrated on designing ambitious electronic soundscapes that provoked as well as delighted the faithful few who were listening in. Yet it was whilst Thug D resided in both Japan and Thailand (studying far eastern philosophy and moon psyching) that the band would reconvene (after a frenetic interviewing and bribing process the band were now augmented by multi talented mad axeman Kyriascum) on several occasions in South London to record their finest album statements : "Paraquat","Prolapse" and "Centipede Strap On Masquerade". This added up to make or break time for the band, after years of slugging with clumsy medieval 80..s equipment and half hearted silliness the band finally had some killer material that was the missing link between Psychic TV, Godflesh and Pet Shop Boys. However, in typical Deathsquad fashion they ran scuttling into the background, undecided on touring, recording or even committing to anything more than a day here and there in ky-studios or a marketing blitz of ageing material.As a fitting testimony, BIG LAD RECORDS picked up the shambolic offerings of their last sessions in 2005, these were to form a proggy double album based loosely on a mad Tolkein type of yarn about sea serpents, beach time sea-shanty fantasasia, futuristic yearning with a mixed blend of the usual squad doctrine : anti-political slogans, lust, anger, village idiot loutish behaviour and lower league football. Alas, the band fell out half way through, leaving just a tantalizing 30 minute glimpse of what could have been. Yet, possibly, "THE CRUSTACEAN SESSIONS" contains enough evidence that the band could still be more than just an afterthought in the history of skag-rock-digi-punk.WHATS WITH THE HARDCORE DEATH METAL NAME !?!? Yes, Thug D..s idea of creating the most hard rocking hard drinking politically incorrect name he could think of, a name that would make Guardian readers physically wince, and for better or worse the name has stuck. Unfortunately there is death metal band with the same name in the USA ! though the bands paths have yet to cross !! Remember Deathsquad (UK) are the original boyo..s, and we are not a heavy metal outfit.ALBUM LIST Urban Clearway (1994) God Save The Squad (1994) The Smell of Grimsby (1997) COMPILATION Waste Not Want Not (1997) The New Testament (1997) Phatic Communion (1998) Black September (1998) Snatch (1998) Cyanide and Vitriol (1998) COMPILATION Watersports (1998) Paraquat (1999) Live in Court (1999) Prolapse (1999) Slabs of mo (2000) Necramata II (2000) Vague Memories and Self Assasinations (2001) COMPILATION Centipede Strap-on Masquerade (2001) Meat is Moida (2003) Instruments of Torture (2004) COMPILATION Adventures in No-Fi (2004) Bread and Butter Pudding (2004) COMPILATION Basement Bedsit Tapes (2004) COMPILATION The Crustacean Sessions (2007) On Windscale Pier (2008)The band did hit the airwaves across Europe and the US and were/are reported widely and mainly favourably in the global underground music press and have had several releases on Mick Magic..s ground breaking Music and Elsewhere label, Mandarangan Recordings of Chigaco as well as Burbs.Spin off and related musical projects include :- The Squadfish, The Human Fruity..s Extreme Circus, SGP, Thug D..s SGP, Kingston Bagpuss, Mirmis, Fiction 51, Terrapin Binocular, Slumlandlords, Thug D and the X Tory Ministers, Necramata and Twat Company.