Amen Dunes

Amen Dunes's (aka Damon McMahon) ethereal new album, Through Donkey Jaw, has been grouped in with leftfield psych acts of decades past, even though Through Donkey Jaw typifies this century's lo-fi psych/folk bedroom-recordings better than it rehashes them. Through Donkey Jaw is a release bearing a hidden focus; it floats like a rolling fog, hazy purpose unfurling. By album's end, the fog is stripped away entirely, revealing an accessible and richly emotive core. Tracks like opener "Baba Yaga," "Jill" and "Bedroom Drum" serve both as points of entry into the Amen Dunes sound as well as an accurate representation of the unique pop/experimental sonic subtleties that dominate McMahon's art. Let Amen Dunes's first proper full-length be a respite from the shinier, sunnier and generally brighter indie pop currently in vogue.