The Depreciation Guild reviews, music, news

The Depreciation Guild is a fuzzed-out, reverb-drenched rock/electronic duo consisting of Kurt Feldman (guitar, vocals, programming/chip-tunes, toys) and Christoph Hochheim (guitar, vocals). Backed solely by a Nintendo Entertainment System, the band blankets their sound with the crushing blows of its 8-Bit 2A03 sound chip. Drawing inspiration from a wide array of classic shoe-gaze/dream-pop bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints, and Cocteau Twins, as well as electronic composers such as Bill Nelson and YMO, The Depreciation Guild have artfully cultivated a unique sound that strikes a ...read more

The Depreciation Guild is a fuzzed-out, reverb-drenched rock/electronic duo consisting of Kurt Feldman (guitar, vocals, programming/chip-tunes, toys) and Christoph Hochheim (guitar, vocals). Backed solely by a Nintendo Entertainment System, the band blankets their sound with the crushing blows of its 8-Bit 2A03 sound chip. Drawing inspiration from a wide array of classic shoe-gaze/dream-pop bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints, and Cocteau Twins, as well as electronic composers such as Bill Nelson and YMO, The Depreciation Guild have artfully cultivated a unique sound that strikes a balance between progressive and retro-chic. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, the band is no stranger to the local club circuit, having performed at renowned venues such as the Mercury Lounge, Knitting Factory, Galapagos, Don Hills, and the famed 2006 Blip Fest. The band's first EP, Nautilus, released by 8 Bit Peoples in January of 2006, is a blissed-out, swirling, guitar-heavy epic that was received with international acclaim. In November of the same year, they contributed a track to the 8BP050 compilation, a special 50-artist compilation released by 8 Bit Peoples capturing the current exciting moment of radical and explosive evolution in the chip-tune scene. The Depreciation Guild finished work on their first full-length release, In Her Gentle Jaws, in 2007. Buzz surrounding the release began to snowball as soon as the band posted a handful of new tracks on their MySpace page, including the driving single "Butterfly Kisses", a live favorite among their loyal fan base. Released in December 2007, In Her Gentle Jaws takes the band's songwriting and arranging to breathtaking new places. From the sonic attack of "Sky Ghosts" to the lullaby calm of "Heavy Eyes", The Depreciation Guild have created a piece of music designed to be heard as a whole - an album filled with highs and lows, saturated in color, and drifting into dream. In Her Gentle Jaws was self-produced in New York. It was mixed in Chicago by Joshua Eustis, one-half of renowned experimental electronic group Telefon Tel Aviv. Eustis's resume includes work with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Bebel Gilberto, Apparat, Robin Guthrie, and The Album Leaf. The record was mastered back home in Brooklyn by Bill Racine. Racine assisted producer Dave Fridmann on modern classics from the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, and has more recently produced albums for Rogue Wave and Mark Gardner of Ride. In Her Gentle Jaws is self-released, and available as a free digital download, exclusively at www.inhergentlejaws.com. As of March, 2008, it has been downloaded 40,000 times, and the band has been featured in a wide array of websites, blogs, and publications, such as RCRDLBL, PopMatters, Obscure Sound, and XLR8R. They have also received two glowing reviews from Pitchfork, both for the track "Sky Ghosts", as well as the full-length album. « hide

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