Depresion‘s SoundCloud boasts just a single song: “Inexistencia.” Pressing play reveals pretty much what you can expect from a band with a name as cheery and sunshiny as theirs: clinical slow bass, ominous vocals, and a beat that resembles a death march. For the first part, it’s almost straight up Joy Division, until you get past what appears to be a chorus. Then you watch the walls melt and the demons take you away in a cascade of shoegaze.
Depresion is the union of three musicians hell-bent on creating music for a mood most of us are familiar with. The band counts Arch from Los Blenders, Fer from O Tortuga, and Héctor Escajadillo (a one-time member of I Can Chase Dragons) among its ranks. Call it a side project or a supergroup if you will – the truth is that this band will inevitably be compared to their other more active outfits. Depresion does without the energetic good vibes of lo-fi slacker rock or the tongue-in-cheek lyrical themes of O Tortuga or Los Blenders, but it’s not a complete departure. A closer listen will reveal that their other bands’ effortless melodies and minimal chord changes remain in place, giving us a darker shade of their preferred mode of expression. They do expand on their sonic palette; the track clocks in at six minutes, giving them a chance to indulge in a 90s-esque song arrangement that extends the track without becoming overblown, much like a song at the end of a Smashing Pumpkins record.
This is music for the morning after a Los Blenders/O Tortuga show, when you’re feeling the worst hangover of all-time and your body aches from last night’s slam dancing. This is music for when your teenage desire to watch the world fall apart returns after too much punk and booze have taken their toll.