First new album from acclaimed, forward-thinking indie artist Amen Dunes since the beloved 2018 album
Freedom, and his first album on Sub Pop Records. Recorded primarily by Amen Dunes his studio in NY, Death Jokes features jazz bassist Sam Wilkes on a trio of songs, producers Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray) and Kwake Bass (Tirzah & Dean BLunt) on several others, and appearances by Panoram and Money Mark.
With
Death Jokes, for the first time since the project's incarnation in 2006, the spiritual reflections and meditations of Amen Dunes are turned away from himself, and out sharply towards the world. The album is also a drastic turn musically and thematically, rooted in the electronic music of raves and of rap music he grew up with but never imagined himself able to make, playing like a scathing electronic essay on America’s culture of violence, dominance, and destructive individualism.
The work on
Death Jokes began just weeks before the first word of the pandemic came in the winter of 2019; it was completed three years later as we began to emerge from the worst. The album's meaning morphed as the pandemic went on, first a reflection on our attachment to form, and to ourselves, and then shifting into a solemn indictment of our culture’s blind spots as we misjudge and attack, veiled self-centeredness and self-importance masquerading as morality.
Released: May 2024
Cat: SP1555X
Label: Sub Pop
