Richard HolmesSong
Voodoo
Artist
Dunes
Dunes backstory
Dunes brought some welcome desert heat to Northern England when they emerged in 2016, with the riff dusters drawing comparisons with the likes of Kyuss, QOTSA and Fu Manchu.
And the Newcastle act have built on that early promise, releasing debut album Take Me To The Nasties in 2019, following that up with 2022’s Gargoyle, and hitting Desertfest London, Stockholm and Malmö’s Fuzz Festivals, as their stoner rock stock rose.
They’ve been in no mood to take their feet off the gas either, hitting bars and mini-fests up and down the UK and keeping motorway service stations in business.
So maybe Dunes needed a change of pace and some country air when, last November, they set off for tranquil rural Northumberland to record at Thropton’s Old Church Studios: the resulting album, Land of the Blind, will be the trio’s first on Californian label Ripple Music.
Voodoo – featuring Ryan Garney, vocalist with tour buddies High Desert Queen – is the second single to be taken from that forthcoming full-length, following Riding The Low’s appearance back in September.
In the band’s own words
“Voodoo is about those times when you feel you ‘can’t do right for doing wrong’ as the saying goes, you try but it still goes belly up anyway. The track features Ryan Garney from High Desert Queen, we played together when they first came over to the UK in 2022 and we’ve been great friends since then.
“When we toured together in 2023 he joined us on stage a bunch of times, so when it came to writing and recording the new album we figured it’d be fun to have him sing on a song. We gave him free rein to add some tasty backing vocals and we were stoked with what he sent back!”
The verdict on Voodoo
Dunes get down and dirty on Voodoo. There’s a scuzzy, Louisiana feel to John Davies’ fretwork and drummer Nicky Watson time warps back to 70s Bill Ward as the heaviest parts play out. Yet for all Voodoo’s weight – and it bears some of Dunes’ most metallic riffs to date – the song is balanced by Garney’s astral vocals, which weave some extra melodic magic into the choruses.
A good choice of single and an exciting further glimpse into Land of the Blind…
We can’t wait.
What’s next for Dunes?
Land Of The Blind will be released via Ripple Music on January 17 next year.
And the trio will be embarking on a full UK tour in support of the record. They’ll be hitting: Rebellion, Manchester (January 25); The Dev, London (January 31); The Anvil, Bournemouth (February 1); The Hastings, Carlisle (February 2); Hope & Ruin, Brighton (February 3); Six Six Bar, Cambridge (February 4); The Victoria, Birmingham (February 5); The Gryphon, Bristol (February 6); Outpost, Liverpool (February 7); Zerox, Newcastle (February 8); and Bannermans, Edinburgh (February 9).