On their first album,
Mandatory Enjoyment,
Dummy made a pretty strong case as the most-impressive inheritor of the
Stereolab sound. Like that foundational group,
Dummy displayed a similar knack for blending the avant-garde and bubblegum as they deftly and inventively mixed droning beats with chiming guitars, fuzzy organs, and lush vocal harmonies to create a future modern sound their heroes would no doubt appreciate. When it came time to record their second album -- 2024's
Free Energy -- the band decided that they wanted to take things in a slightly different direction. While not exactly casting off the sound they had established, they instead twisted it into new shapes, adding new elements and both roughening and smoothing it out in the process. The band took their time piecing together the songs, using computers almost as another instrument in the mix as they manipulated tones and re-formed themselves into a slightly stranger, a little bit more obtuse and experimental band. Along with tracks like "Minus World" and "Nine Clean Nails" that sound like remodeled takes on their sound, they delve more deeply into shoegaze this time out on tracks like "Soonish" and "Unshaped Road," the latter has a wobbly, subaquatic feel that comes across like a less frantic
Moonshake. They also take some excursions into avant-garde ("Opaline Bubbletear"), ambient pop ("Dip in the Lake"), and new age ("Godspin") territory, while also giving many of the tracks -- like the jungle-lite first half of "Blue Dada" or the murkily trip-hop adjacent "Psychic Battery" -- some electronic dance music underpinnings. The head-spinning, difficult to follow nature of the album makes for a brilliant step forward, especially since they lost none of the melodic strengths they previously exhibited along the way. Taking the pretty, hooky songs and scuffing them up with noise ("Minus World") or sending them spinning lightly around the room to the accompaniment of bugling synths and off-kilter found sounds ("Nullspace"), or pulling the rug out from underneath them in exciting, unexpected ways (as in "Sudden Flutes!!!") makes for a thrilling, always-surprising listening experience. While
Dummy's past work has been quite nice, bordering on really good,
Free Energy sounds like the work of a band tapping into the well of creativity at its source and coming up with a work that gently and gracefully slides the group up one notch closer to their heroes. ~ Tim Sendra
