"Recorded while Damon McMahon was living as an expatriate in China, Amen Dunes presents seven new stunning works of sunlit haziness. During the two years he lived abroad, he lived most of the time in an apartment on the north end of Beijing. He tracked these songs one summer in that apartment. With the exception of “Diane” and “Murder Dull Mind,” all of these songs were recorded in one take and are completely improvisational; on repeated listens though, there is a pop-ness to these songs amidst the improvisation. The title track in particular, a melodic mantra-like work could certainly function on its own as a single. Although the songs have a bit less pre-written structure than Amen Dunes’ previous work on the Locust label, they are still every bit as miraculous. The geographical influence on his work central to both writing and recording conditions is evident here as these songs are way more open, and generally more free than his debut Dia (recorded in 2006 in a Catskills cabin) was. A bit less psych freak out and a bit more dark folk vibe throughout."
I've just finished reading Thoreau's 'Walden: Or, Life in the Woods' and came across an mp3 in my iTunes by Amen Dunes that I don't remember downloading. It turned out to be 'By the Bridal', a wonky 5minute psychedlic acoustic-based track not to far from something off a Syd Barrett or Skip Spence album.
"A lot of crazy shit can happen to a man when he goes solitary in a ramshackle Catskill Mountain home for an extended stretch of time-especially for a city kind of guy. But if Amen Dunes's 12 tracker Dia is one possible outcome of the guy alone-in-a-cabin- story, then a little tape saturated brain frying is something we should all live comfortably with because this is a batch of seriously raw & inspired loner psych grit that owes a debt to the diy soundz of the George Brigman s of the world.
That was 2006. These days the lone wolf behind Amen Dunes -Damon McMahon calls a small two room apartment overlooking the Temple of Earth in North-Central Beijing home, where he watches old men fly kites and sing opera every morning. Who knows what'll come out of that." Locust Music
You've heard the story before, but there's just something about the idea of a lone man out there in the woods that never gets boring to me. Whether it's Thoreau, Dick Proenneke or Bon Iver, I always seem to be sucked into their world. I've managed to listen to a few other tracks off the album and from what reviews I've read the album is split in two halves. The first contains "reverb-drenched melting psychedelia," and on the second half "he breaks into some incredible acoustic gems that will have you convinced this is some long lost record from the late 60's." (ongakubaka).
White Fence is Tim Presley. He's singer for Darker My Love, has played in The Fall (on 'Reformation') and is also a member of one of my favourite bands of the moment, The Strange Boys (although he's only credited on their Myspace for vocals and laughs). The album has been compared to those of a lot of my favourites from the 60s, including Love, The Byrds, Skip Spence, Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, The Who etc. You get the picture! The comparisons aren't too far off the mark either and makes this a must for any fans of said bands!
"Wander into the sweltering Cali smog to find yourself transported into a lysergic pop netherworld, where White Fence carves broad strokes of color into your mind. Coming on like Love in a Lollipop Shoppe, or Chris Knox abusing a Voxm the record oscillates between a sun-dappled English meadow, a crumbling SoCal suburban bedroom, and a riotous Sunset Strip leather gang knife fight, with the kind of warped precision and purity that marks the wolves from the sheep and the profound from the pretend in this instant online age. You know what I mean." Woodist Records
"There's hardly a minute of this debut that doesn't remind you of something else, but never in an objectionable, copying sort of way. What you're hearing, if you like 1960s psychedelia, are the skewed, very personal observations of a guy who has the same records as you do, who loves them deeply, but would never stoop to xeroxing them." Dusted Magazine
After covering 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' and 'Songs Of Leonard Cohen', Beck's Record Club's third installment is a cover album of Skip Spence's 'Oar'. If you're new to Beck's Record Club, Beck and some friends basically get together to record a chosen album in a day. In the past guests have included Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Little Joy and Wolfmother. This time round, guests included Wilco, Feist and James Gadson (who's played drums for Bill Withers and on hits like 'I Will Survive' and 'Express Yourself') and was recorded "at Sunset Sound Studios in the room where the Stones did a lot of Exile On Main Street" (Beck). You can listen to the results at Beck's Record Club.
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