by Arthur Velez (@chillguy4000)
“Fissured Ceramics,” track two from Dummy’s debut LP, Mandatory Enjoyment, features many of the sonic touchpoints you’ll hear on their latest offering, do you love the color of the sky? - their first for indie institution, Polyvinyl. Tightly clipped tremolo, driving drums, layered guitars, and intertwining vocals create blasts of multicolored sound, reaching for a heady variant of noise pop. Similar seeds were sprouting on 2024’s Free Energy, but despite its more concentrated, accessible sound, it still felt like they were working through the scope of what Dummy could be. Those earlier records were neither incomplete, nor lacking, but pop sensibilities and clear statements were mostly sidelined in favor of ambient soundscapes and experimentation. It turns out that “Full Spectrum Dominance” isn’t just the name of dyltcots?’s lead single, it’s also a statement of transcendence. Through restlessness and introspection, the Los Angeles quartet have evolved into a band capable of producing a dazzling lucidity.
The dream pop sound that was once pigeonholed as Stereolab worship has blossomed into something much more intentional. Guitar tones have more depth; drum machines hit harder; the overall instrumentation is at once focused and bursting at the seams with ideas. The band doesn't wait around to show you how they’ve grown. The opening track, “April Limousine,” is a thrilling excursion into iridescent dance music, embracing glitchy trip-hop and soaring electronica. It also showcases Emma Maatman’s vocals in a way that’s only been hinted at in the past. Where previous records most often utilized her breezy alto as an accompaniment, winding around guitar and synth lines or Nathan O’Dell’s leads, the band now embraces Maatman’s penchant for earworm melodies and syncopation. Elsewhere she has scene-stealing performances within the head-tingling vibrations of “Squeaky Wheel,” showstopping peak of “N of 1,” and the petal-soft lilt of closer, “Heaven’s What You Make of It.” Leaning into her dynamism pays off, as it's that voice that pushes the album’s strongest songs from good to remarkable. It’s not a coincidence that Free Energy’s stickiest tracks (“Soonish”; “Nine Clean Nails”) also feature her freest vocal performances.
Fans of Dummy’s more experimental side, fret not: the band certainly left space to continue probing the ether; the aperture has only widened. Joe Trainor’s guitars are intricately processed and mixed, creating walls of noise that are at once atmospheric, tactile, and vibrant - at times reminiscent of the sound design of Austrian guitarist and producer Fennesz. Leaning into the heavy tremolo effect as an album staple is another brilliant choice: it produces a captivating combination of rhythm and phrasing, boosting the organic feel of the drum machines and Maatman’s and O’Dell’s voices. Lyrically, the two lean into open-ended questions, focusing their lenses on the existential: “But what is it that you want?” (“Omen Globe”); “Does it hurt? To hurt a fly” (“Squeaky Wheel”); “How much longer?” (“Touch the Perfect Speed”); and, of course, “Do you love the color of the sky?” (“April Limousine”).
Perhaps Mandatory Enjoyment’s album art was forecasting the future: its Matisse-esque cutouts dancing around a prismatic, smiling sun hint at a wide-eyed euphoria that, it turns out, would take five years to capture. The ability to self-assess is a gift, and at dyltcots?’s peaks Dummy comes across as a band that has grown into their most joyful features, which also happen to be their most compelling. It's unlikely the band will cease their searching; hopefully they keep dancing, and is there anything better in life than finding moments of clarity?