Andrew DuncanDune Sea
Dune Sea
All Good Clean Records
★★★
I feel like I have been subjected to one gigantic lull of a chord, spanned across an entire album. Dune Sea’s self-titled album is a mind trip of psychedelics and Frank Herbert. This Norway band turns stoner rock into a mind field of closed-eye monolithic acid trips.
Never diving into the depths of epic song lengths, their focus is how well they can muddy their sound down and make it effective. The title song is power through sonics as if the early ‘70s blew up in their face. In a song like “Green,” they turn to prog rock for their mantra. It’s hard to get into when all you want to hear is that chugging riff blasted into infinity. But that easily gets remedied on “Astrodelic Breakdown.” The guitars crunch so hard it’s like a riff earthquake of lasers and rock star poses.
It gets to a point where lines blur and you are not sure when things end and begin. What you do know is the persistent, driving feeling you get as you move from “Future” to “Bounty Hunter” to “Awake.” Put this album on repeat and this band will take you to infinity.
Dune Sea is an artistic statement. I cannot say you will get the same effect with just one song or plucking pieces out of the album. That is not how this band works. But if you spin this album properly then you will understand how something as linear as Dune Sea can turn into a deep experience through a magnitude of sound.
