The Death Set
Worldwide (Counter Records)

The Death Set hails from Baltimore, Maryland, by way of Gold Coast, Australia, where Johnny Siera met co-founding member Beau Velasco in 2005. Both drawn to each other’s reckless care of music, the duo united to write fleeting songs with lifelong hooks and overdriven melody. Hell-bent on recording and touring, The Death Set moved first to Sydney, quickly to Brooklyn, and finally to the meaner streets of Baltimore where their punk rock abandon could thrive.

Buoyed by the DIY network they found there, the band recorded and released their first two EPs -- To (2006, Rabbit Foot) and Rad Warehouses Bad Neighborhoods (2007, Morphius) -- honing their homemade sound of jury-rigged gear and overblown mics. The Death Set soon began work on their first full-length, recording at The Copy Cat building in Baltimore, an artist warehouse studio where the band lived at the time.

The Death Set’s debut album, Worldwide, on Ninja Tune’s Counter Records imprint, fully fills twenty-five minutes with eighteen relentless tracks. Produced, engineered and mixed by Siera at The Copy Cat, with further mixing by Rob Girardi at Lord Baltimore Studios, Worldwide boasts the endearing noise of unrefined creation. From the timeless call-to-upraise-arms of “Negative Thinking”, through the rallying cry of “Intermission”; the love-buzz of “Heard It All Before” along the serrated edge of “Cold Teeth”; through the wistful chime of “Had A Bird”, and the high-voiced androgyny of “Day In The Wife”; The Death Set exploits consonance and dissonance to the fullest. “Around the World” enters enemy dancespace, while “Listen To This Collision” puts crowds on a crash course with each other.

Johnny Siera cites that frenzied energy as The Death Set’s reason for being, and their tight-knit community as the fuel to keep going. As the band’s leader – since Velasco has taken a back seat from live efforts -- the slight-sized Siera has entrenched The Death Set in a broadening circuit of artist friends. Bolstered by the addition of guitarist/vocalist Peter O’Connell, and flanked live by drummers Japhphet Landis and Joey Sulkowski, the band now launches on its Worldwide escapade. Getting as many hands in on their DIY ethos as possible, The Death Set has found touring partners in Japanther, Best Fwends, Dan Deacon, Ponytail, Girl Talk, Bonde Do Role and Spank Rock. While The Death Set’s sound is most like that of its punk influencers -- Black Flag, Minor Threat, and Buzzcocks – it also bears the distinct mark of hip-hop and electronic styles in production, and as interludes in their raucous offstage outbursts.

Touted as “Best Live Band” by the Baltimore City Paper, and any who have shared their floor space, The Death Set jams blindsiding minute-songs into compact spaces. Bastions of every riotous warehouse party Charm City outward, the live four-piece -- fortified by a rotating arsenal of drummers -- plays on the floor and at crowd level. With breakneck fuzz atop lo-fi electronics, searing vocals over-scored by a lift of positivity, The Death Set redefine the space of the anthem, and take it Worldwide.

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