After a listen to Dummy's debut album
Mandatory Enjoyment, it's clear that the members of the band have done plenty of closer examination of the music of Germany in the 1970s and London in the early '90s, with a side trip to Slumberland (as in the record label.) The L.A. group has clearly applied the lessons of bands like
Cluster and
Neu!, who balanced avant-garde impulses with clear melodies, and groups such as
Stereolab or early
Broadcast, who applied some rhythmic thrust and sparkly songcraft to their layers of sound. As if that weren't enough, Dummy also add blown-out shoegaze guitar textures, West Coast psychedelic-influenced vocal harmonies, and plenty of vintage synths to the mix. It's a pleasing approach, one that quite a few bands have employed over the years. Dummy make it work, though, and the album sounds less like a history lesson than it does a noisy blast of modern pop. The band invest the songs with captivating dynamic shifts, balance guitars that sound like they are ripping the amplifiers to shreds with sweetly sung vocals, and generally give the listener the impression that the band invented this sound. Obviously they didn't, but on songs like the pummeling rocker "Punk Product #4," the menacingly bouncy "Fissured Ceramics," or the pretty dream pop duet "Daffodils," the band sound fresh and on par with the bands that influenced them. While these uptempo songs are the ones that do the initial grabbing, the tracks that hang back and deliver more measured pleasures turn out just as nicely and show the band's range. The hypnotic "Final Weapon" dials back the guitars in favor of looped bongos, wildly spinning radio dials, and surging vocal harmonies, "H.V.A.C." is a wobbly psychedelic pop song that sounds like it's missing a wheel, and "X-Static Blanket" rides a heavy bass-drums groove deep into the subliminal while the synths fire volleys of static into the stratosphere. By the time the album is over, it's easy to think that one just spent the last half-hour uncovering a lost classic from the early '90s, a joyful companion to
Emperor Tomato Ketchup or The Noise Made by People. That being said,
Mandatory Enjoyment is much more than a dusty museum piece, and while Dummy may be proudly retro, like their heroes
Stereolab they make their love of the past sound brand new and exciting. ~ Tim Sendra