Label: Trouble In Mind
Cat no: TIM192
Format : LP, Album, Ltd, Inv LP, Album
Country US
Released: 2024
Genre: Rock
Style : Shoegaze, Indie Rock, Krautrock, Dream Pop, Post Rock
Media Condition: Mint (M)
Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
Comments: Brand New, sealed. TIM192LPC1 - Inverted Hyperspace Splatter
MORE INFO:
Dummy's debut full-length Mandatory Enjoyment arrived in late 2021, becoming one of the year’s sleeper hits. Coming out of lockdown, the band spent two years touring in support of the record, and it is this transformational experience that pulses through Free Energy, the exhilarating follow-up to Mandatory Enjoyment.
A creatively restless band, Dummy (Ewell: drums, synths, bass; Maatman: vocals, synths, organ; O'Dell: vocals, guitar, organ; Trainor: guitar, bass, synths) wanted to get harder, dancier, more psychedelic for their next record. This meant applying explorative potentials of electronic textures to the elemental qualities of rock i.e. more vocal loops, sampling, more crazy rhythms, and playful synths - but make those samples of Trainor’s guitar, let Maatman sing bolder, experiment with using cold mechanical elements in warm and sparkly ways, and lean harder into traditional-yet-still-awesome forms of rock guitar experimentation like feedback. The result is a record that celebrates music’s ability to move the body, whether that be through a teeth-rattling wall of MBV-esque noise, a sticky pop chorus, or a joyous drum machine or, if you’re Dummy, maybe all of them in the same song.
Pop music has always been a big part of Dummy’s sound and it manifests in different ways all over Free Energy: the bubbly synth sequence made with a Korg EM1 popping all over “Nullspace,” the revved-up drone-pop inspired by second and third wave Dunedin Sound bands like Look Blue Go Purple and Dadamah, and the motorik beat powering “Nine Clean Nails,” perhaps the most confidently pop song Dummy has ever recorded and one that exemplifies “Free Energy”’s balancing of live performance intensity with electronic augmentations, the dancier rhythmic elements created out of a drum loop recorded by Ewell while the bridge recalls the Feelies with call-and-response guitars from O’Dell and expressive vocals from Maatman.
Free Energy also features guest appearances from Oakland-based saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Cole Pulice (Moon Glyph) contributes saxophone and wind synths and Jen Powers of Powers / Rolin Duo (Astral Editions, Feeding Tube Records).
For fans of Seefeel, Water From Your Eyes, Cindy Lee, Can, Lewsberg, Aphex Twin, Portishead, Mandy Indiana and Stereolab, Vanishing Twin.
A1. Intro-UB
A2. Soonish
A3. Unshaped Road
A4. Opaline Bubbletear
A5. Blue Dada
A6. Nullspace
A7. Minus World
B8. Dip In The Lake
B9. Sudden Flutes
B10. Psychic Battery
B11. Nine Clean Nails
B12. Godspin