BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition August 2018

AMEN DUNES
THE TALE OF THE EVAPORATING EGO
MAT WILKINS
MRG CONCERTS &
THE GOLDEN TICKET
MUSIC
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This Month's Showcase of Must-See Music! The Ticket to Your New Favourite Artist.
LEMURIA
with Katie Ellen
and DUSK
August 4
The Biltmore Cabaret
Damon McMahon has created one of the most intimate and celebrated albums of the year with Freedom.
Damon McMahon, the drug-pop-turned-regularpop
phenom has found freedom in many ways.
Freedom from the mainstream, freedom to create
and most importantly, freedom to write about
himself and the world around him without the
weight of ego on his back.
Performing as Amen Dunes, the young performer
has slowly evolved his career from writing a “gnarled
underground classic” while living abroad in Beijing
in 2010 — Murder Dull Mind — to crafting one of
the most commercially viable (and heavily praised)
albums of 2018 — Freedom.
This latest creation is allegedly one of Amen
Dune’s most ambitious projects which — between
writing, recording, abandoning, and then recording
again — took three years to create. The new album
consist of old and new friends alike, including
longtime bandmates Jordi Wheeler (keyboard) and
Parker Kindred (drums), as well as famed producer
Chris Coady, Delicate Steve, and electronic musician
Panoram. The result was a full length that’s sonically
astounding in more ways than one; Freedom is at
once a logical sequel to his previous LP, Love, a foray
into Tom Petty and Mick Jagger-inspired pop, and a
psychedelic departure from earlier releases.
Subdued electronic drums and synths seamlessly
coalesce with haunting and melodious surf-rock
instrumentation throughout, seeming to collectively
and invariably produce an idyllic soundtrack to the
dusky summer streets of his home in New York just
as it closes its eyes for the night.
Songs like “Blue Rose” or “Miki Dora” are carried
along by infectious basslines that chug beneath and
prop up the rest of the music. “Skipping School”
and “L.A.” contain cavernous instrumentals that are
made all the more passionate by McMahon’s ragged
and spirited vocals. It’s often said that McMahon’s
lyrics are about letting go of the idea of self, but
that’s something the songwriter would rather you
decide on your own.
“Yeah I kind of grow tired of talking about it in a
way,” he says without a hint of annoyance in his
voice. “Because if someone is inclined to kind of get
in touch with reality, they’re going to find out what
that means for themselves, you know? This was my
process of moving away from self focus. That was
happening in my own life, and of course it came out
in the music.”
Freedom covers subject matter ranging from
Jesus, Perseus, and 1960s surfers all the way to
McMahon’s family, friends, and himself. Yet the
common thematic thread running through all the
lyricism seems to focus on what McMahon calls
an “evaporating ego.” The album speaks of heroic
masculinity, pride, drug use, and dark pasts, with a
style of storytelling constantly oscillating between
the personal and the imaginary.
“If you love war, then you’ve got war with me,”
declares McMahon in an on-the-nose address to his
unsupportive father on “Blue Rose.”
There’s no denying Freedom is extremely intimate,
yet doesn’t come across as an artist trying
desperately to understand and explain their place
in the world. Instead the album is exactly what the
name implies; it’s an act of writing freely about
yourself and about the world without being, as
McMahon puts it: “hung up on all the different
things your ego uses to define you.” There’s no
pretense or pretending in Freedom’s stream-ofconsciousness
writing, just a lyricist aiming to keep
their own self-centred ideas from encroaching on
any “intuitive inspiration.”
“The other records were very self-focused… [the
early records] were super negative, you know? And
they were very aggressive… It reflected a darker
mental and emotional state. And [this last record]
reflects a kind of opening,” McMahon explains.
The album begins with a quote from American
abstract painter Agnes Martin during an interview
in 1997: “I don’t have any ideas myself. I am a vacant
mind.” What follows is an album that reverently
pays homage to that idea. From its uplifting,
psychedelic instrumentals, to McMahon’s disjointed
yet heartfelt lyricism, Freedom is like a prescription
for the neurotically self-aware. McMahon’s music is
for those who need to be reminded that profound
moments, memorable experiences and good art
come along when you stop focusing on trying to
make them happen.
Amen Dunes performs August 14 at the Imperial
(Vancouver).
HOT SNAKES
with Pet Blessings
and NEEDS
August 10
The Biltmore Cabaret
SALES
with No Vacation
August 24
The Biltmore Cabaret
TICKETS AT MRGCONCERTS.COM AND RED CAT RECORDS
AJJ & KIMYA
DAWSON
with Shellshag
August 14
The Biltmore Cabaret
Follow @beatroutebc for a chance to win your way in!
August 2018 17