The Depreciation Guild – Spirit Youth
I’ll come right out and say that this may not be for everyone, especially those who frequent the blog in hopes of hearing the more abrasive/ugly side of things. Apologies if that’s the case, but I’ve had the newest album from The Depreciation Guild playing pretty consistently for the past couple weeks and I honestly can’t deny it space on here after enjoying it so much. That just wouldn’t be right. Anyway, before I ended up starting to type all of this I don’t think I’d ever heard anything described as “chiptune”. Apparently that has something to do with incorporating elements of video game styled music into your very own material. Had no idea, and especially didn’t realize that was part of Depreciation Guild’s deal, in which they use an old NES chip to dish out some of the sounds you hear sporadically throughout their new album Spirit Youth. Honestly whenever I was around my brother more often, who is a very diehard videogame player, I would always call the stuff he listened to “video game music”. Never knew there was a nifty little name for it. Now I can feel hip whenever I talk to him again I suppose.
Anyway, I originally stumbled upon these guys when I heard their single for “Dream About Me” on Kanine Records a year ago. At that time my impression was quite positive, with their highly energetic and upbeat brand of dream-pop. I mean this stuff could kill you with its “all smiles and sunshine” vibe and really Spirit Youth just amps that up another notch. The beginning 8-bit sounds of album opener “My Chariot” about had me turning it off from the instant I heard it, but once the chorus kicked in you could practically consider me a goner at that point as it had me completely hooked. Incredibly catchy and when you combine that with the sort of oddness/beauty in the area of some of those late 80’s & early 90’s dream-pop/shoegaze acts, then I’ll bite and probably bite hard. The Depreciation Guild pretty much pull all the punches here with track after track of upbeat sugary pop and it’s really really good. Even the Nintendo retro beat shit is used in a relatively unobtrusive way that, honestly, had I never ran across articles explaining the whole “scene” behind this I wouldn’t have even noticed or known. So I guess that’s a win. Anyway, I suggest checking this out if you’re into dream-pop/shoegaze type material.
The Depreciation Guild – Crucify You [MP3]
Anyone interested in picking this up can do so by heading over to Kanine Records. Definitely recommended if you’re enjoying the tune above, much more where that came from.
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