The Depreciation Guild

  Spirit Youth

01. My Chariot
02. Crucify You
03. Blue Lily
04. Dream About Me
05. November
06. Trace
07. A Key Turns
08. Spirit Youth
09. Through the Snow
10. White Moth

Is dreamwave a saturated musical market yet? Maybe it’s headed that way, but the original sound of The Depreciation Guild managed to blow my mind within 30 seconds of tuning in. Perhaps it’s because they’re not simply following the latest dreamwave trends: they’re creating a throw-back sound that has distinct shoegaze roots in My Bloody Valentine and more recently Autolux. Hell, there’s even a ton of 80s reverb in there. Maybe you’re about to argue that this is simply shoegaze, and I shouldn’t even bring up dreamwave. Chances are more likely, however, that you give a flying hoot about my analysis. If that’s the case, you should probably just click the “play” button and zone out. For the rest of you, bring on the genre bending!

Sure, it’s becoming an increasingly satirized form of analysis: “Check out this shit-pop chillzone scream-folk Irish elephant band out of Portland! They’re totally gonna be the next big thing on Pitchfork!” So why go that route? Because I want to, and because the new album by The Depreciation Guild, “Spirit Youth”, gets me muddled as to where to lump them.

What makes this different to anything else that’s been put out in the past? Well, it’s the clash of classic shoegaze and modern synth-laden, drum-machine dreamwave. Sure, they’re using real drums, but let’s be honest: half of what’s on this recording has been tweaked to living hell. It’s modern electronic production meets the old-school shoegaze we know and love. I guess that makes it simple then, doesn’t it? They’ve avoided the awfully electronic sounds of Neon Indian and settled on modernizing the pure and “classic”. They’re thus dreamwave, chillwave and shoegaze, all wrapped into one. And I’m not saying that because they’re somewhere between the three; rather, they embody all three at once. And they do it well.

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