Dummy
Mandatory Enjoyment
Release Date: Oct 22, 2021
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Dream Pop, Experimental Rock, Noise Pop, Shoegaze
Record label: Trouble in Mind
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Album Review: Mandatory Enjoyment by Dummy
Great, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 7.6/10
Dummy has all the makings of a modern cult band. Formed in late 2018, the Los Angeles group have evolved noticeably in a short span of time, leaving behind the shivering avant-folk of their first EP and lo-fi video game music of EP2, recorded on an iPhone. Their debut full-length, Mandatory Enjoyment, is just as voracious, merging the band's key influences from 1990s noise-pop and early electronic psychedelia with ambient interludes that add welcome dynamics between bursts of frenzied instrumentation.
Opinion: Excellent
Mandatory Enjoyment by Dummy It's no accident that one of Dummy's most intriguing songs is called "Static X-Blanket," because this is a band that bangs you down hard then wraps you in a fuzzy blanket of hum. Their songs offer a weird, intoxicating mix of judder and solace, like Clinic on a micro-dose. A hard rain of eighth note strumming pounds down in tin roof clangor, but softness, sweetness and trippy good feelings permeate all.
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