HESSE KASSEL - Morir Saltando

Sometimes you look for form, other times you want to destroy while you build, and that's essentially what “Morir Saltando” does, the second work from one of the most promising bands of the Nueva Escena Chilena, Hesse Kassel.
The trio from the Región Metropolitana de Santiago take the post-rock of their previous album “La Brea” and drag it forcibly out of the room, only to set it on fire. They offer us six tracks, around forty-five minutes, and a creature that's much harder to pigeonhole: post-hardcore, math-rock, jazz-rock, noise, art-punk and prog that bite their own tails without ever asking for permission.

“Pornomiseria” is the monster at the door, almost fifteen minutes of narcotic tension, deformed funk, jazz chords, dance-punk rhythms and guitars that seem to run faster than thought itself. Renatto Olivares's spoken voice cuts through the chaos like a drunken preacher wandering the ruins of a city put to fire and sword, while Eduardo Padilla's drums turn the track into an avant-garde machine. Even the reference to Willie Colón and Rubén Blades's “Oh, Qué Será?” becomes lab material, handled, naturally, by some mad scientist. When the screams arrive, they don't feel like a climax: they feel like a door being kicked in, and you're hit by every ounce of passion available.

“No Me Puedo Relajar” wipes out almost all distance. It's physical, paranoid, post-hardcore to the bone, but it lets math-rock and progressive constantly warp the floor beneath your feet. You feel like you're walking with nothing to hold on to. “El Reflejo” does the opposite: it slows down, breathes, and lets piano, bass and guitars settle into an almost hypnotic balance.
“Mariposa” brings jazz into the distortion with surprising ease, while “Sancho Plagio” feels like running against a crowd that keeps shoving you: broken rhythms, dissonances, psychedelic synths and an anger that seems to have come straight off the streets of Chile. Here the band's identity finally becomes impossible to mistake for the mere sum of its influences.
And then there's “Tulpa”. The album strips itself bare. Melancholy turns into love, maybe real, maybe just invented to survive. A religious, omnipotent, obsessive presence, a ghost to cling to when everything else collapses. Musically it's the softest passage, and precisely for that reason, one of the most powerful.

“Morir Saltando” isn't flawless, but it's extremely powerful. Hesse Kassel aren't trying to build any “grand statement”, and that's exactly why the record sounds so compelling even to the most delicate ear. They're no longer just a band influenced by post-rock. They're building a language (alongside Estoy Bien, Asia Menor, Teodioteodio and all the other highly acclaimed releases of this year) that's dirty, technical, nervy and deeply Chilean. A language that doesn't ask to be understood, but felt. ¿Cachái?

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21/09/2026