Vile Imbeciles - D Is For W

D Is For W

In October 2009, shortly after the band had begun recording their fourth studio album, Hair announced his retirement from music to launch his new company Mr Hair's Pie Factory. Early 2010 saw the band's return to live performances playing completely new material as a five-piece with the addition of Deen Lim and Liam Dowling on bass and synths respectively, with all five members of the group sharing vocals. Whilst the band continued gigging through 2010 and 2011, honing their live sound for the new material, the already largely recorded album found itself in a constant state of editing and re-recording for the studio release owing to its challenging textures and the band's own deliberation over the work, with the band using a total of 4 producers for it. The album was finally released on 3 October 2011 as a joint production by Cameron Devlin & former Pink Grease songwriter Steven Santa Cruz, and was ambiguously titled "D is for W" as a result of a complaint "D.. No, D. D as in W... No, D. D for W... D is for W" Huxley overheard and "completely understood" whilst working in the complaints department of an Insurance Company. The album was described by Huxley as both born of a "severe inner struggle" and "positive and perfect". The album received positive reviews with Uncut describing it as a "Hyper-intense and malevolent, brilliantly well-crafted, math-funk/death jazz hybrid that suggests a cerebral aneurysm reaching critical point" and MOJO calling it "pop that simultaneously grates, intrigues and beguiles". Unusually, no additional promotion in the form of singles or videos were released by the band in support of the album.