Sample the Really Real Sounds of Amen Dunes [stream]

Amen Dunes – Lonely Richard SoundCloud

Sometimes you stumble across music so real that it immediately resonates, which is what happened when I came across Amen Dunes’ latest work, Love. The artist behind the sound, Damon McMahon, saw the release of his debut album in 2009, which was a collection of tape recordings he never truly intended to release. From there, he put together a band to form Amen Dunes and explored a range of free-spirited genres ranging from Ethiopian to bedroom industrial. His latest work is mainly stripped down downer rock with the occasional outcropping of punk, which is to be expected when collaborating with members of bands like Iceage and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The word “elemental” seems to be a large part of his description as well, as McMahon excels at rendering songs in their lowest terms and singing the hell out of them with his earnest, inquisitive voice. There’s a candlelit quality about the whole album that is both warm and eerie, a quality that makes late night mystics such as myself fall hard. Love may well be one of the most slept on albums to be released this year, and I urge you to explore Amen Dunes if you haven’t yet. Sample Amen Dunes’ sweeping simplicity with “Lonely Richard” above.