Review: Cy Dune Kicks 2022 Off Right with Raucous, Explosive Release “Against Face”

Cy Dune © 2022
Cy Dune © 2022
Raw, raucous, and unapologetic, Cy Dune’s explosive “Against Face” is an energizing, high-octane dose of driving garage rock and post punk ready to set our ears aflame.
Stream: “Against Face” – Cy Dune




[It’s] lyrically a sort of ranty, self-aware sincerest jab at the modern cultural techno rat race problem we humans all have… [but ultimately] as with much of Cy Dune songs, it represents fun with music’s societal forms.

Sometimes we need to be shaken awake with a feverish kick or a punch to the gut. 2022 has just begun, and we’re all a little sleepy – in something of a pandemic-induced stupor, if you will, after nearly two full years living in what feels like a new reality; an altered state. We needed Cy Dune’s latest release, and we’ll need more songs like it, to really get the year going right.

As one commenter on YouTube wrote, “This song hit me like a moment of clarity. Rock the **** on and thank you.” Raucous and unapologetic, Cy Dune’s explosive “Against Face” is an energizing, high-octane dose of driving garage rock and post punk ready to set our ears aflame. Unfiltered passion manifests itself in a loud, charged outpouring that is as raw as it is polished.

Against Face - Cy Dune
Against Face – Cy Dune
We’ve all been standing in line
Wasting too much time
1-800-leave me alone
This isn’t fun anymore
don’t throw me a bone
I don’t want your garb or phone or cologne
or denim or bacon
The world’s forgotten God and rock n roll
About face turn around
Sing along hit the ground
Big city small town
Ownership underground
Stare into the sun tell me it ain’t fun

It took two minutes to wake us up, but we’re awake now – and hungry for more. Released January 6, 2022 via Lightning Studios, “Against Face” is the title track off Cy Dune’s forthcoming album of the same name (due out March 4th via Lightning Studios). The “post genre positive punk project” of artist/producer Seth Olinsky (co-founder of legendary underground rock band / “noise folk experimentalists” Akron/Family), Cy Dune has two full-length albums to his name, to date: 2014’s Shake and 2019’s Desert. His first release in three years promises to continue the unrelenting savagery of his past releases, while providing some of that bone-deep catharsis we’ve collectively needed, for quite some time now.



Tight, driving beats and searing guitars provide a seductive backdrop, against which Olinsky’s voice howls and soars. “We’ve all been standing in line, wasting too much time,” he starts, already setting up that hunger for sweet release. “1-800-leave me alone, this isn’t fun anymore… I don’t want your garb or phone or cologne, or denim or bacon, the world’s forgotten God and rock n roll.

It’s at this point that the first of many overdrive-laden upheavals comes to bear, and listeners better understand what it means when Cy Dune lets loose. A refreshing chaos ensues as fierce guitars puncture the air – but even this doesn’t compare to the dramatic onslaught of a guitar solo at the song’s midpoint. All told, Dune fashions “Against Face” as an unburdening of the collective soul: A chance for all of us to release the tension we’ve built up over the past year(s). He sings repeatedly, “No fun, no fun, no fun… against face! against face! against face!” It’s all we can do to join him in this emphatic, unleashed overhaul.

About face turn around
Sing along hit the ground
Big city small town
Ownership underground
Stare into the sun tell me it ain’t fun
Cy Dune © 2022
Cy Dune © 2022



“‘Against Face’ is the title track off the new album,” Olinsky tells Atwood Magazine. “Musically it features a drummer exhausting, relentlessly, a flat floor tom pattern, a spazz jazz guitar solo, and lyrically a sort of ranty, self-aware sincerest jab at the modern cultural techno rat race problem we humans all have, with a little nod to The Stooges’ ‘No Fun.’ But ultimately, as with much of Cy Dune songs, it represents fun with music’s societal forms more than a hardline ideological perspective, and fits mostly in line with the truly committed aspect of the Cy Dune music again and again to Energy Music and its positive impact on humanity.”

As raw as “Against Face” is, one can immediately tell how much work went in to crafting its cacophonic sound.

Such is the beauty of Cy Dune’s work: It’ll charge you up and wind you down, giving you whatever kind of rush you’re after. At this moment at the top of the year 2022, we needed a big release to meet our needs. “Against Face” feeds that fire, and quenches our thirst. Stay tuned for more from Cy Dune ahead of Against Face‘s early March album release, and until then lose yourself in the undeniable blast of energy that is this song.

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:: stream/purchase “Against Face” here ::
Stream: “Against Face” – Cy Dune



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Against Face - Cy Dune

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