Mandatory Enjoyment

by Dummy

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Alyssa Seven I stood in a room with my eyes closed and palms facing outwards when I heard this live. Nothing else really matters in this reality, just blips of time going and gone and beeps of static. Melodies overlapping and melodic hums take me somewhere else for just a moment <3 Favorite track: Aluminum In Retrograde.

FraterOiram motorik sex muzak Favorite track: Final Weapon.

dragic27 This mandates enjoyment to the Nth degree Favorite track: Fissured Ceramics.

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Black vinyl version
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Limited "sky blue" vinyl version
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"Sky Blue" first pressing comes housed in a full color LP jacket and includes a printed inner sleeve.

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Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

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Limited cassette version (tangerine shell)
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First pressing of "Mandatory Enjoyment", housed in a tangerine cassette shell.

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Limited ORANGE vinyl version
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Orange vinyl second pressing comes housed in a full color LP jacket and includes a full-color printed inner sleeve.

Includes unlimited streaming of Mandatory Enjoyment via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

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Limited cassette version (cobalt blue shell)
Cassette + Digital Album
Second run of "Mandatory Enjoyment" cassettes, housed in a cobalt blue cassette shell. In-hand & ready to ship!!

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1.	Protostar 01:33		buy track
2.	Fissured Ceramics 03:14		buy track
3.	Final Weapon 03:04		buy track
4.	Punk Product #4 02:38		buy track
5.	Cloud Pleaser 03:44		buy track
6.	H.V.A.C. 05:39		buy track
7.	Tapestry Distortion 03:39		buy track
8.	Unremarkable Wilderness 01:02		buy track
9.	Daffodils 02:48 video	info	buy track
10.	X-Static Blanket 02:16		buy track
11.	Aluminum In Retrograde 02:39		buy track
12.	Atonal Poem 05:48		buy track

about

Los Angeles band Dummy refuses to slow down. After releasing two cassette EP’s in 2020 (on Popwig and Born Yesterday respectively), Dummy’s debut full-length album arrives via Chicago’s Trouble in Mind Records. Employing pummeling guitars and celestial ambience within the same breath, the band folds a myriad of reference points into their drone-pop style. Influence from '60s melodicism and '90s UK noise pop can be found woven in with inspiration from spiritual jazz, Japanese new age, and Italian minimalism.

Dummy dodges the brooding, dark, dramatic tropes of contemporary "artistic" music often found in punk, experimental, and electronic, instead insisting on joyous and euphoric sonic palettes. They refuse to be artistically stagnant, continuously shifting their approach to writing across 12 tracks. Shaped by performances around Los Angeles in 2019, songs like "Daffodils" and "Fissured Ceramics" feature relentless driving energy and ample psychedelic noise. Elsewhere, Dummy counterbalances the aggression with meditative synthscapes focused on sound design and studio experimentation, like on the motorik "X-Static Blanket". Finally, centerpiece "H.V.A.C." and the album's final track, "Atonal Poem", seek to synthesize these two poles, offering multi-part journeys through uncharted sonic territory.

In contrast to blissed-out instrumentation, Dummy's sardonic lyricism examines "the burden of modern life, consumerism, environmental collapse, alienation, and other anxieties born out of living in this absurd moment in history". Interior design, marine pollution, the psychology of commercial architecture, and nuclear testing are all featured subjects. Dummy's restless creativity keeps them moving ever-forward, continuously challenging themselves and pushing their sound into exciting and exhilarating places. This is - as the album title suggests - "Mandatory Enjoyment".

credits

released October 22, 2021

Dummy: Alex, Emma, Joe & Nathan.

Recorded at 1351 and Studio 22
Recorded, produced, mixed by Joo-Joo Ashworth and Dummy.
Midi flute on "Final Weapon" by Joe Stevens
Backing vocals on "Cloud Pleaser" by Gina Negrini
Art & Layout by Emma
Mr. Dummy by David Van

Thanks: Lisa & Bill Roe, Joo-Joo Ashworth, Greg and Kevin at Born Yesterday, Justice at Popwig, Alan Everhart, Joe Stevens, David Van, Gina Negrini, Zach Inscho, Joon Voight, Sammie Pearson, Non Plus Ultra, Lionel Williams, Marina Aguerre, Jes and Mariana at Bandcamp, and everyone who has listened to, wrote about, booked or supported us in any way. We are truly grateful.

Listen: Listen: Mo Dotti, NIGHTSHIFT, Smoke Bellow, Blue Ocean, AV Moves, Omni Gardens, Jock Gang, Lifeguard, Les Halles, Mope Grooves, Shaki Tavi, UV-TV, Posmic, Dylan Moon, Blue Zero, Gum Country, Versing, All Hits, Laraaji, Gold Cage, Stuck, SiP, Dream Crease, Bookhouse, DWP, Toner, Entry, Caution, Green-House, Automatic, Documa, FACS, Landing, Los Dolores and Peel Dream Magazine.

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about

Dummy Los Angeles, California

Making music shouldn't be fun
[email protected]

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discography

Bubbelibrium DLC

Jun 2025
Dumb EPs

Aug 2025
Free Energy

Sep 2024
Mono Retriever

Jun 2022
Mandatory Enjoyment

Oct 2021
EP2

Nov 2020
Dummy EP

May 2020

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