The Los Angeles band Dummy, featuring Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, and Joe Trainor, has announced their new album Free Energy, set to release on September 6th via Trouble In Mind Records. Alongside this announcement, the band has shared the lead single and video, “Nullspace.” While pop elements have always been integral to Dummy’s sound, they take on new forms in ‘Free Energy’. This is evident in the bubbly synth sequences of “Nullspace,” crafted with a Korg EM1, and O’Dell’s melody which the band calls the record’s “sonic mission statement,” drawing influence from Mark Van Hoen’s dreamy, dance-pop creations on the Locust album *Morning Light*.
Watch the video for “Nullspace” below:
Dummy’s debut full-length *Mandatory Enjoyment* released in late 2021 and quickly became a sleeper hit, garnering praise from Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, Stereogum, Aquarium Drunkard, and other publications for its mix of ambient and twinkly guitar pop, deep musical references, and meticulous construction. The album’s rapid sales left Trouble in Mind scrambling to restock, and Dummy was invited by Sub Pop Records to contribute to their renowned Singles Club series. The band’s rising popularity saw them opening for acts such as Horsegirl, Botch, Black Country, New Road, Luna, Spirit of the Beehive, Dehd, Snooper, Sweeping Promises, Snail Mail, and more.
While *Mandatory Enjoyment* was a cerebral and lo-fi creation born out of extended indoor time, *Free Energy* embraces movement, presence, and physicality. Embracing their creatively restless nature, Dummy has shifted towards a harder, dancier, and more psychedelic sound. Ewell and Trainor have been experimenting with home recording, using DAWs as compositional tools. O’Dell has delved deeper into instrumental and sample composition, adding more guitar leads, while Maatman’s vocals take a confident, prominent role, enhancing the album’s live performance feel.
*Free Energy* is a celebration of music’s ability to move the body, blending teeth-rattling noise, sticky pop choruses, and joyous drum machine rhythms into a cohesive whole. The album also features contributions from friends and tour mates, including saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Cole Pulice and Jen Powers of Powers / Rolin Duo. Field recordings from the band’s tour, capturing the sounds of rushing water, rumbling vans, indistinct voices, and chirping birds, are interwoven into the music, creating a tapestry that treats these mundane sounds with the same reverence as the album’s ecstatic rhythms and explosive hooks. For Dummy, it’s all music, and that holistic approach is what makes them so compelling.