Union Coffee Break - Depression

Union Coffee Break

Depression
self-released; 2017

​3.5 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Union Coffee Break is a one-man band and also just recently started the project in 2015. Apparently, he got some decent equipment from a music scholarship while he was gaining experience from an audio engineer.

​He recently released a four-song EP called Depression. The songs are slightly more chipper than the title and sometimes more angry. Something about this EP makes you feel his young age. On a song like “Have Hope” it just sounds like he is slightly melodramatic and indignant between the spoken word poetry and the death metal type screams.

I thought other songs fared slightly better such as the opener “Depression” which had more of hazy, slacker feel not that far away from Deerhunter. I was surprised by how much reverb was on his vocals considering he was working with an engineer. It’s just way too much. I wanted to hear what he was saying or at least hear the inflection. He sings/speaks, “Idiots are bold and geniuses are quiet, I thought you were perfect, But you're not worth it. “III” is a short groove that is over before it begins.

“End” was the highlight. The groove is solid. It has an ambient, shoegaze feel and I think the vocal melody was solid. On that note the dramatic, speaking section didn’t work as well. 

The EP is pretty scattered with some disparate ideas. The one thing the songs have in common is a bunch of reverb. Union Coffee Break has some inspired ideas but still has some tweaking to do to compete with more prominent acts. 

I think putting some more levity into the music here and there could also benefit his style. There is nothing wrong with taking your music and message seriously but sometimes I felt like the audience weren’t included in the song which is something that bands like Radiohead and Portishead are able to relay.

All things considered this project is so recent that who knows how he will develop in the next couple of years. My bet is that we will see a lot of evolution.

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