I first discovered The Dunes (Stacie Reeves -vocals and percussion, Matt Reiner – guitar, Adam Vanderwerf – bass, Jess Honeychurch – keyboards, Brett Walter – synths, Clair O’Boyle – drums) in 2014 when I was writing for Outlaw Music Magazine. These Australian psych-rockers create music as big as their homeland and trippy as the night skies above the desert there. I don’t know if they’ve ever toured the United States, but getting this fine live recording is a good appetizer for a future full course live meal.
The album opens with “When You Wake Up,” which plunges you into their deep, dark psych-rock at the first note. It’s almost induces a trance with its droning synths, fuzzed-out guitars, echoing vocals, thick bass, and drums that sound like they’re being played in a red rock canyon, so I imagine the band is referring to waking up from illusions and seeing true reality rather than waking from a good night’s sleep.
“Badlands,” the title track to their September 2014 release, is nearly ten minutes of freak-out mind-warp madness. The synths spin around you, the drums would fit in a pow-wow, and the bass buzzes like a drunken hummingbird. We get an extended cut of “A Thousand Crimes” after it, and I like how the synths sound like a sitar and the guitar work has a bit of a surf edge to it.
“End of the Beginning” is strong and bold, with great shoegaze guitars and heavy bass and percussion while the keys, synths, and vocals float along like a weird fog. The use of a tambourine on this track is both excellent and jarring. “Door to the Mind” blends shoegaze and psych-rock so well that I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins. It definitely will open your mind as it blends Doors, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus and Mary Chain. It’s an amazing track with some of the finest guitar and rum work on the record.
“Lunar Effect,” all eleven minutes and six seconds of it, ends the album on an uplifting note with vocals that rise like the sun. The band goes out on an ethereal note as they flow back and forth until the final chords.
This is a fine psychedelic rock record and one of the best live albums I’ve heard in a long while. The Dunes need to get to the U.S. soon so more can hear them.
Keep your mind open.
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