Panchiko recruit Mei Semones for «One Car Hits Another» ahead of new album «Chimera»
Panchiko announce Chimera, arriving in April, and share One Car Hits Another featuring Mei Semones.
Panchiko are moving beyond the story that made them an internet discovery. The Nottingham band have announced «Chimera», a new album scheduled for 9 April via Nettwerk, and shared its first single, «One Car Hits Another», featuring Mei Semones.
The group’s unusual journey from obscurity to a devoted international following remains part of their identity. Yet the arrival of another full-length record shifts the conversation toward the music they are making now rather than the circumstances in which listeners first found them.
From a forgotten demo to a twelve-track record
Panchiko’s story remains unusual even by the standards of internet-era rediscoveries. A damaged copy of their early «D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L» release surfaced in a charity shop and later circulated online, prompting listeners to search for the musicians behind it. The band eventually reunited, turning that unexpected attention into a functioning recording and touring career. «Failed At Math(s)» and «Ginkgo» are important steps in that second chapter: the forthcoming «Chimera» asks to be heard as a new creative work rather than a nostalgic footnote.
The confirmed tracklist runs to twelve songs, with a wider group of collaborators than the single alone might suggest. Rapper billy woods and Cotillon appear on «Day One»; Clarion features on «Overwrite» and «Giorgia»; and Mei Semones also contributes to «Glazing» and «Zinc Spark», alongside other guests. The range of names points to a record interested in moving between styles. It would still be premature to claim how the unreleased songs sound.
What we know about «Chimera»
Recorded by the band and produced with CJ Mirra, the album is set for 9 April 2027 via Nettwerk. The first single appears as track two. The larger release has been described as drawing on the strange experience of life on tour: constantly changing landscapes, long distances and days that blur together. Those themes offer a fresh perspective on a group whose best-known story has often been about the past. The detailed tracklist and guest credits are already public.
A waltz at the scene of a collision
Built in 6/8, the song brings together glitch-like touches, grand melodic gestures and a hazy indie atmosphere. The sonic touchstones named around the release include Grandaddy, The Flaming Lips and the dramatic sweep of Britpop. What sets the song apart is its central image: an accident unfolding in slow motion, described almost as a strangely peaceful dance.
Panchiko’s Andy Wright explains that he imagined witnesses and future victims singing together as they watched the event approach. A collision and a handshake become two different types of encounter, leaving the listener uncertain about where the real damage lies.
Another step for a band with a second life
Mei Semones’ presence adds a notable collaboration to the group’s new chapter. The single is less interested in simple nostalgia than in combining different musical textures and emotional registers.
«Chimera» will offer a fuller view of that direction when it arrives next April. Until then, «One Car Hits Another» establishes an intriguing starting point: romantic, uneasy and just slightly out of focus.