Damon McMahon has announced he’s putting Amen Dunes to rest, but not before one more release, Death Jokes II, a remix album for this year’s Death Jokes, which is out today. “This is the last chapter of the final volume,” McMahon says. “Goodbye, I’ve barely said a word to you, but it’s always like that at parties – we never really see each other, we never say the things we should like to; in fact it’s the same everywhere in this life. Let’s hope that when we are dead things will be better arranged.”
Death Jokes apparently took four years to make, including an earlier version of the album from 2021 that featured contributions from Money Mark (Beastie Boys) on keyboards, and drums from legendary session player Jim Keltner (Bob Dylan, etc) and Carla Azar (Autolux). Those sessions came back into play here, featuring stripped-down mixes by Craig Silvey (REM, Portishead), with additional contributions from Panoram, Kwake Bass (Dean Blunt, MF DOOM), Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray), and Robbie Lee.
Amen Dunes, we hardly knew ye. Listen to Death Jokes II below.