DeathBoy
Encyclopedia
DeathBoy is the pseudonym of Midlands
-born musician Scott Lamb, and also the name of his band.
and rave
genres using OctaMED
on the Amiga
. At school, he met Matthew Phillips (also known as "The Phil"), who became his long-term lyrical collaborator and friend.
In 1995, he went to Liverpool University, and began using the name DeathBoy. Beforehand he had been releasing tracks under the name Technohead, and wanted to avoid confusion with the newly-popular gabber artist Technohead
. After graduating in 1998, he spent six months working for a games company in Aldridge which went bust, before working at Blitz Games
in Leamington Spa, where he met Phil Palmer, later to be his live drummer.
His online reputation spread in 2001 when he created the DeathKiddy Test, a Flash
applet
with one of his tracks, "Decimate", as a soundtrack.
On moving to London early in 2001, Lamb started spending time on the London net.goth
scene through contacts he'd made online, meeting Jason Knight and Adam Gelman. In 2002, he formed DeathBoy as a live project after rejecting several alternative names, including "DeathBoy and the Bomb Puppets". The original lineup was Lamb (vocals), Jason Knight (guitars), Adam Gelman (bass), Phil Palmer (drums) and housemate Ben 'Noz' Urbina (guitars).
Urbina left the band after three gigs, and was replaced by Nathan "Hexa-dB" Parton on keyboards. Parton left after a further three gigs, leaving a four-piece line-up that continued until October 2005, when the band recruited Lee Chaos of Wasp Factory Recordings as live keyboardist.
The band have supported such leading underground artists as Tricky
, Sheep on Drugs
, Icon of Coil
, Rico (with special guest star Gary Numan
), and Bella Morte
. They have played Whitby Gothic Weekend
(in 2003 and 2005), the Catalyst festival in Toronto (2003), Black Celebration 5 (2003) in London, as well as numerous smaller shows up and down the UK. Mick Mercer
listed the band second place for his "Top 20 albums of the year" in 2003. The band has also been reviewed in Terrorizer and Meltdown magazines.
Deathboy signed to Line Out Records in 2005, and released their second commercial album, End of an Error
, in 2006.
Their industrial music
song "Black Morning" is part of the soundtrack of the Xbox 360
video game Project Gotham Racing 3
.
software movement. The releases include:
The potentially confusingly named free release Music to Crash Cars To (v1.0) is not the same as the 2003 commercial album, although they share many of the same tracks; Lamb felt that the name was "too good not to re-use".
"Works-in-progress", completed parts of which are downloadable (as of April 2011):
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
-born musician Scott Lamb, and also the name of his band.
Scott Lamb
Lamb started making music at the age of thirteen, creating music in the breakbeatBreakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
and rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
genres using OctaMED
OctaMED
OctaMED is a popular sound tracker for the Commodore Amiga, written by Teijo Kinnunen. The first version, 1.12, was released in 1989 under the name MED, which stands for Music EDitor. In April 1990, version 2.00 was released with MIDI support as the main improvement...
on the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
. At school, he met Matthew Phillips (also known as "The Phil"), who became his long-term lyrical collaborator and friend.
In 1995, he went to Liverpool University, and began using the name DeathBoy. Beforehand he had been releasing tracks under the name Technohead, and wanted to avoid confusion with the newly-popular gabber artist Technohead
Technohead
Greater Than One is an English electronic music band, founded by husband and wife Lee Newman and Michael Wells in 1985. They released many albums under this name, and also under the names Tricky Disco, GTO, John + Julie, Church of Extacy, Signs of Chaos, T.D.5, Salami Brothers, Killout Squad,...
. After graduating in 1998, he spent six months working for a games company in Aldridge which went bust, before working at Blitz Games
Blitz Games Studios
Blitz Games Studios is a video game developer located in Leamington Spa, United Kingdom. It was founded by the Oliver Twins, Andrew and Philip Oliver, in 1981. They completed their first game in 1984 and started developing titles for video game publisher Codemasters.The Codemasters publishing...
in Leamington Spa, where he met Phil Palmer, later to be his live drummer.
His online reputation spread in 2001 when he created the DeathKiddy Test, a Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
applet
Applet
In computing, an applet is any small application that performs one specific task that runs within the scope of a larger program, often as a plug-in. An applet typically also refers to Java applets, i.e., programs written in the Java programming language that are included in a web page...
with one of his tracks, "Decimate", as a soundtrack.
The band
On moving to London early in 2001, Lamb started spending time on the London net.goth
Net.goth
Net.goth is short for usenet goth. The term is used to describe regulars of the alt.gothic hierarchy of newsgroups, uk.people.gothic and aus.culture.gothic....
scene through contacts he'd made online, meeting Jason Knight and Adam Gelman. In 2002, he formed DeathBoy as a live project after rejecting several alternative names, including "DeathBoy and the Bomb Puppets". The original lineup was Lamb (vocals), Jason Knight (guitars), Adam Gelman (bass), Phil Palmer (drums) and housemate Ben 'Noz' Urbina (guitars).
Urbina left the band after three gigs, and was replaced by Nathan "Hexa-dB" Parton on keyboards. Parton left after a further three gigs, leaving a four-piece line-up that continued until October 2005, when the band recruited Lee Chaos of Wasp Factory Recordings as live keyboardist.
The band have supported such leading underground artists as Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
, Sheep on Drugs
Sheep on Drugs
Sheep on Drugs are a British techno / dance-punk music group, formed by Duncan X [aka King Duncan] and Lee Fraser [aka Dead Lee] and currently composed of Fraser and Johnny Borden...
, Icon of Coil
Icon of Coil
Icon of Coil is a Norwegian electronic music band. The band was established as a solo project in 1997 by Andy LaPlegua who was joined by former Sector 9 bandmate Sebastian Komor to perform live. With the release of Shallow Nation, the band's first single, Komor joined full-time. In 2000, Christian...
, Rico (with special guest star Gary Numan
Gary Numan
Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
), and Bella Morte
Bella Morte
Bella Morte is a gothic band that was formed in 1996 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They also incorporate elements of metal, darkwave, deathrock, alternative, and synthpop. The name is Italian for "beautiful death."...
. They have played Whitby Gothic Weekend
Whitby Gothic Weekend
Whitby Gothic Weekend, often abbreviated to WGW or simply referred to by attendees as Whitby, is a twice-yearly festival for goths, in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, organised by Jo Hampshire who runs Top Mum Promotions.-Event history:...
(in 2003 and 2005), the Catalyst festival in Toronto (2003), Black Celebration 5 (2003) in London, as well as numerous smaller shows up and down the UK. Mick Mercer
Mick Mercer
Mick Mercer is a journalist and author best known for his photos and reviews of the goth, punk, and indie music scenes. He has photographed the bands Tragic Venus and Blondie in the UK and Europe.He publishes a monthly online magazine called "The Mick"....
listed the band second place for his "Top 20 albums of the year" in 2003. The band has also been reviewed in Terrorizer and Meltdown magazines.
Deathboy signed to Line Out Records in 2005, and released their second commercial album, End of an Error
End of an Error
End of an Error is the second studio album released by DeathBoy. A successor to DeathBoy's debut release Music to Crash Cars To, End of an Error was a much more polished release...
, in 2006.
Commercial releases
DeathBoy have two commercial albums:- Music to Crash Cars ToMusic To Crash Cars ToMusic to Crash Cars To was the debut release by UK Industrial band DeathBoy. It was released in 2003 by Wasp Factory Recordings . It is presently available as a download from Line Out Recordings. The album was produced and mastered by Scott Lamb in conjunction with Lee Chaos of Wasp Factory...
(2003), - End of an ErrorEnd of an ErrorEnd of an Error is the second studio album released by DeathBoy. A successor to DeathBoy's debut release Music to Crash Cars To, End of an Error was a much more polished release...
(2006)
Their industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
song "Black Morning" is part of the soundtrack of the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
video game Project Gotham Racing 3
Project Gotham Racing 3
Project Gotham Racing 3 is an arcade-style racing game that was released with the launch of the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005 for the US market and December 2, 2005 in Europe, and was released on January 12, 2006 in Japan. Developed by Bizarre Creations, it is the third installment in the Project...
.
Free releases
Many DeathBoy albums, EPs and collections are available for download free of charge from their website, as a part of Lamb's "release early and often" policy, mirroring an ethic of the Open SourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software movement. The releases include:
- BitScapes (2008–2011)
- CogRock (2008–2010)
- Covers (2005–2010)
- Unalternative (2003–2010)
- Remixes (2003–2010)
- Premixes (2003–2010)
- ToRights (2007–2008)
- Forwards (2006–2007)
- DeathBoy – LIVE (2004–2007)
- Digital Deviant (2005–2006)
- Ifyouunderstoodiwouldnthavetospeak (2004–2005)
- Sociopathic (2003)
- Boxesoftricksandtraps (2003)
- Self-Hatred for Fun and Profit (2002–2003)
- Riding the Biorhythms (2002)
- GodKiller (2001)
- Music to Crash Cars To (v1.0) (2000–2001)
- Invisible (2000)
- A Very Technical Boy (1999)
- Deftunes (1996–1998)
The potentially confusingly named free release Music to Crash Cars To (v1.0) is not the same as the 2003 commercial album, although they share many of the same tracks; Lamb felt that the name was "too good not to re-use".
"Works-in-progress", completed parts of which are downloadable (as of April 2011):
- Eschatology (2010–2011 so far)
- BiPolar (2005–2008 so far)
- Highly Derivative (2003–2005 so far)