When their end comes this month, it will be almost 20 years to the day since Usurper first announced themselves to the world. That was when the duo of Malcy Duff and Ali Robertson joined forces to move beyond their tenure with the rumbling behemoth that was Giant Tank to do something a whole lot quieter. Working with dismantled instruments and what looked like a table full of car-boot sale detritus, Usurper mixed an array of off-kilter sound effects with goofy verbal exchanges that made for a kind of Zen art cabaret.

After two decades, Usurper’s Dadaist double act is pulling the plug on proceedings. To say cheerio, they have gathered the clans for That’s That Then, in which friends, conspirators and fellow travellers join forces for one last blowout. ‘I guess Usurper died of covid,’ says Robertson of the duo’s parting. ‘We came out the other end of the pandemic and it didn’t feel like something we wanted to continue doing.’

Duff concurs. ‘I've decided to concentrate fully on my cartooning,’ says the prolific creator of numerous DIY comic abstractions released on his own Missing Twin imprint. ‘I felt it was time to move on from Usurper and take more time at my drawing board.’

Usurper was sired from a desire to move on from formulaic bombast. ‘It was Ali’s idea to start Usurper,’ remembers Duff. ‘We had both become bored of playing in rock bands and wanted to do something different. We dismantled all the instruments we would usually play, and tried to celebrate the sounds you might miss out in those bands: plectrums running up and down the ladders of empty guitar necks, the creaking springs on a drum pedal. I began to picture playing a gig while walking along the street, a concert of picks in my pocket.’

As Robertson remembers, ‘at our very first show, we had no idea what we were going to do. It was a genuine experiment.’ This has remained the case ever since. While Usurper may be no more, Duff and Robertson will continue to bang their own respective drums.

‘Malcy has his comix and I have my duo Off Brand with Firas Khnaisser, the TFEH gig series, the Giant Tank label, and loads of other stuff to fill my days with,’ says Robertson. ‘And we both play with Sonic Bothy’s Learning Space group, so we still jam with each other regularly outside of Usurper.’

Duff will perform ‘from time to time, and I’m still developing some new “live comix”, performed comic books that I began making and performing in 2010. I feel very excited to see what we will both do next.’ 

That’s That Then With Usurper & Friends, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Saturday 14 October.