The Origin Of My Depression

In an artistic landscape fuelled by gamified promotional tactics, spasmodic virality and manufactured controversy, the amount of noise independent artists must cut through can seem overwhelming. Yet it’s the most genuine statements—often those expecting no audience at all—that overcome.

The Origin Of My Depression, the 2019 album from Australian experimentalist Uboa, presents a deeply affecting mix of dark ambient, noise and extreme metal that all but demanded its unplanned but unsurprising cult following. Some tracks began as live improvisations recorded in a living-room-turned-bedroom; others were taken from live sets in venues.

Xandra Metcalfe, the mind behind Uboa, offers sonic representations of her anxieties, depressive thoughts and lived experiences across the record’s seven songs. Four years on, it stands as a defining statement of late-2010s underground music.