2 LP SIDE 4 ETCHING With Death Jokes, for the first time since the projects 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 albums 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. 1. Death Jokes 2. Ian 3. Joyrider 4. What I Want 5. Rugby Child 6. Boys 7. Exodus 8. Predator 9. Solo Tape 10. Purple Land 11. I Don’t Mind 12. Mary Anne 13. Round the World 14. Poor Cops
