Amen Dunes is back and will release Death Jokes, his first album in six years, on May 10 via Sub Pop. Damon McMahon made it with contributions from Sam Wilkes, producers Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray) and Kwake Bass (Tirzah, Dean Blunt), Panoram and Money Mark. He also incorporated samples gathered from the corners of YouTube, including “an interview with J Dilla, recordings from Type O Negative and Coil, a lyre performance of the oldest written song in human history, protest chants, a grunting powerlier, and bits of stand-up from Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and others, as ‘thought provocation and irritant.'”
The first single, “Purple Land,” begins as a loping, reggae-tinged and synthy ballad, but then grows into something bigger and more complex. “Purple Land is one of the album’s interstitial character portraits: first of a child, then the narrator, and then of an empowered figure as they all navigate and find liberation from the disconnection and disenchantment of an uncertain world,” says McMahon. “It begins first as a song to my daughter about life on earth, offering platitudes, warnings, and guidance through its various stages, until it becomes a reflection on the narrator’s own uncertainties as he moves through the world, ending finally with a character Rhea Anne who exemplifies liberation from it all in a moment of simple reckless freedom, as the beat drops in the final minute of the song.” Watch the video below.
Amen Dunes also has a few live shows in May, including L.A., San Francisco and NYC’s Brooklyn Steel on 5/15. Tickets for those shows go on sale Friday, February 16 at 10 AM. All dates are listed below.
Death Jokes
1. Death Jokes
2. Ian
3. Joyrider
4. What I Want
5. Rugby Child
6. Boys
7. Exodus
8. Predator
9. Solo Tape
10. Purple Land
11. I Donʼt Mind
12. Mary Anne
13. Round the World
14. Poor Cops
Amen Dunes Tour Dates
Wed. May 8 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore Fri.
May 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
Wed. May 15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Mon. Jul. 1 – Paris, FR @ Trabendo
Wed. Jul. 3 – Berlin, DE @ Gretchen
Fri. Jul. 5 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
Sun. Jul. 7 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Tue. Jul. 9 – London, UK @ KOKO