Yesness (Damon Che of Don Caballero + Kristian Dunn of El Ten Eleven) Announce Debut LP See You at the Solipsist Convention Due November 22nd, 2024 on Joyful Noise Recordings
Share New Single “Not So Sorry Now Are You?”
Kristian Dunn (El Ten Eleven) and Damon Che (Don Caballero) announced their new band Yesness and debut album See You at the Solipsist Convention, out November 22nd, 2024 on Joyful Noise Recordings. Scaffolded around eight-string bass, knotty percussion, and intricate syncopation, the record is a carnival of delights for fans of the post-everything persuasion—uncategorizable yet reverent to the altar of instrumental rock. Fans of the cult classic post-rock band Don Caballero will rejoice, as this is Che’s first studio recording in 16 years after a nine year creative hiatus.
Along with the announcement, the band released their first single, “Not So Sorry Now Are You?” The song is a compelling introduction to the project’s sound, beginning as a static-drenched funk bop and then blossoming into a sweeping epic of intricate polyrhythms and frenetic yet calculated instrumentation. “This is one of the first songs I decided to add a bit of piano to,” Kristian Dunn says. “The part is ridiculously simple but seems to add some gravitas and still leave plenty of room for Damon to do his thing!”
“Aped the double heart throb bass drum pattern from the drummer in my dad’s band I always admired when I was a teenager,” Damon Che adds. “I’m glad Kristian put the piano passage in this one. It takes me back to when music was classy without even trying.”
The jagged and elevated bass notes emerge with the drum shuffles, the drum kit captured with such intense clarity, immediately the new track showcases this crucial unison of percussion and low-end. The track grows with additional electronic elements, intricate hooks, harmonic lead rhythms, and this stirring piano passage.
Yesness have crafted this complex composition with such vast textures and decadent tonal choices, ultimately these two musicians and powerful forces come together to piece a stunning balance of essential entanglement, shifting through this bountiful landscape that compels.
Even as the obstacles to meaningful connection mount into an Everest-ian hurdle, artists nevertheless find ways to bend the technologies of our days to foster visceral human connection, rather than bereft isolation. Comprised of a West Coast bassist (Kristian Dunn of El Ten Eleven) and an Appalachia-adjacent drummer (Damon Che of Don Caballero), Yesness forges a friendship mediated through the language of collaboration, all formed through emailed song sketches and text exchanges of Van Halen demos.
The odd couple of Kristian Dunn (El Ten Eleven) and Damon Che (Don Caballero) was the result of some clever musical matchmaking by Karl Hofstetter, founder and curator of Joyful Noise Recordings. Karl introduced Dunn and Che via email in April 2023 after Dunn’s prolific output outgrew the resources and abilities of his instrumental duo El Ten Eleven. Less than a year later, after countless text messages and song sketches were exchanged, and one fateful meeting at a recording studio was organized, their nascent project’s debut record, See You at the Solipsist Convention, was complete.
“We were ships in the night of the musical variety until Karl found a way to merge our paths,” Che said of his introduction to Dunn. “There are very few comparisons in the aesthetic approach to how we created the music. We worked remotely for eight months before physically meeting for the first time at the recording studio.”
Neck-deep in their own ambitions, Che and Dunn swapped musical ideas and quirky song titles throughout the summer, working at a breakneck pace. Star Wars references were intertwined with walloping bass lines (“If You Say So”); non-sequiturs were punctuated by Che’s signature frenetic percussive jabs (“Horror Snuggle”). Scaffolded around eight-string bass, knotty percussion, and intricate syncopation, See You at the Solipsist Convention is a carnival of delights for fans of the post-everything persuasion—uncategorizable yet reverent to the altar of instrumental rock.
Tearing through the record’s evocative instrumentals is a delightful bolt of strangeness, felt as much as heard in the spontaneous chemistry between Che and Dunn. “Occasional Grape?” dances like a waltz played with a sledgehammer—delicate moments shattered by bursts of aggression, while still embedding a rhythmic earworm deep into your heart. “Nice Walrus,” a string-studded panorama featuring Kishi Bashi, volleys between nervy hyperactivity and heartfelt grandeur. The album’s closing track, “Non-incredible Visitor,” contrasts Che’s meticulous precision with Dunn’s imaginative instrumentation, bonding bass and percussion like nesting dolls. Just as the track seems to settle, it drives off an uncharted auditory cliff—abruptly, without ceremony, leaving the listener grasping for meaning in the murk.
Beyond all measure, Yesness stands as a testament to the powerful dividends of friendship and collaboration. We are nothing without each other – our partners, our local record store clerks, our neighbors. Music, too, thrives on our entanglements. With twelve tracks, an upcoming tour, and an unexpected friendship stemming from one email, Yesness underscores the brilliant machinery of human connection.
Track List
1. Not So Sorry Now Are You?
2. Occasional Grape?
3. Nice Walrus
4. If You Say So
5. People Don’t Like It When You Call Them Ace
6. Fire, When It’s Broken
7. Your Reverb Is Showing
8. Horror Snuggle
9. You Didn’t Need Those Pencils Did You?
10. There’s No One on Board
11. See Through Wolf Costume
12. Non-incredible Visitor
Tickets For US Tour Here.
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