Songwriter Damon McMahon Returns from China as Amen Dunes
Amen Dunes Murder Dull Mind 12" EP (Sacred Bones Records, 2010)
One of last year's most fascinating and overlooked local releases came from songwriter Damon McMahon's Amen Dunes project. McMahon has been a quiet presence in the Brooklyn music scene for the better part of the 00's, fronting bands and even releasing a record on Astralwerks under his given name. Not that you would know it by listening to his current work, as Amen Dunes is light years away from the more traditional folk-inflected turns of his solo material. After falling off the musical grid for a couple of years, McMahon resurfaced in 2009 with Dia, the debut Amen Dunes release. Reportedly recorded in a remote mountaintop shed while McMahon was living in Beijing, the album was one of the year's most beguiling efforts, sounding like a distant report from an unearthed time capsule whose tape had begun disintegrating. The folkways were being filtered through a damaged garage-blues, psychedelic haze via Roky Erickson and Spacemen 3 – the sound of a tortured shaman shouting his demons back down the mountain.
This week Brooklyn label Sacred Bones drops another hint in the form of Murder Dull Mind, a 12" EP that offers another point of entry into an increasingly complex riddle. While traces of the dark, wandering weirdo vibe of the LP remain intact, the blown-out "rock" moments of the former are largely absent, replaced by brooding, skeletal folk insinuations. There are shades of David Crosby's haunted hippie opus, If I Could Only Remember My Name, as well as a spiritual connection to Caetano Veloso's exile in London period, tempering infectious bummer folk with a bold experimentalism. Tracks like "Night Driver Sunriser" and "Yur A Liar" betray a restless spirit, delving into abrasive noise passages and avant-tape-splice approaches to composition while still retaining the core instinct for songcraft that draws us in and keeps us hanging on when the going gets rough. All in all, there are an abundance of ideas thrown at the wall here, and all of them manage to stick. But at the end of the day, when you're kicking off your clogs and turning out the lights, it still comes down to the same running concern, doesn't it: are there any SONGS, man?! Yes, my friends, there are. Underneath it all, there are in fact, very good songs. So go ahead and turn the "Back in 5 – gone to see the shaman" sign face-out on the door of your "place of business" and get your head in the shed.
-Jon Treneff
Amen Dunes plays Coco 66 July 29 as part of the Sacred Bones showcase/record release party and a free in-store on July 30th at Permanent Records in Greenpoint. You can purchase the record here.
Jon is a drummer living in Greenpoint, with a long history opening for bands you probably know. He works at Other Music, Matador Direct and formally Sonic Boom in Seattle. People fly him places to appraise their record collections and we think that rules. Look for a new post whenever the moods strikes.
