Could Utopia Defeated be one of the best albums of the year? The seamless amount of hype surrounding Melbourne-born D.D Dumbo, aka Oliver Perry, definitely puts his debut album in contention.

Perry started making impressions in 2013, most notably at SXSW when he performed solo with a 12-string electric guitar, two drums, a looper and an array of effects pedals. In the following year D.D Dumbo was signed by 4AD and found himself supporting the likes of Daughter and Tame Impala, giving his unconventional imaginative pop the perfect stage to hit music fans alike. Now it’s 2016 and D.D Dumbo’s long-awaited debut album has dropped – have expectations for Perry’s music left the door open for disappointment?

The album starts in a place we are familiar with, both the first and second tracks are singles that have been playlisted on BBC Radio 6Music. ‘Walrus’ immediately showcases Perry quirky approach to his craft; chopped up vocals, eccentric little intricacies as well as Perry’s diverse vocal range makes for a wondrous opener. The first song takes the shape of North African blues rhythms as its base, with Perry’s guitar momentarily taking the song into the Sahara Desert – a complete contrast to what is to come in the second track. ‘Satan’ sounds like it should be the soundtrack to its own subject matter. Futuristic oddities, a chugging beat and the sound of a deep foreboding bassoon fit the idea of a UFO invasion perfectly. With the first three tracks all pieced together by the sounds of the shruti box, ‘In The Water’ works as a settling aperitif; the clean acoustic sounds of guitar, piano and woodwind instruments acting as a beautiful refresher. Then before you know it, you are straight back into the menacing tones of ‘Cortisol’.

Having had D.D Dumbo’s singles at the very beginning of the album, Perry had either made a catastrophic misjudgement or is quietly confident with the remainder of the ten song album. Thankfully the latter rings true. The weird and wonderful sounds in ‘Alhukwe’ set the scene of an exotic tribal ritual; the ominous resonance of the shruti box, the thumping drums and distant background wails culminate in a wash of intense “spiritualness”. ‘King Franco Picasso’ is a dark brute of a track where a truggy beat and warped vocals give the feeling of a monster breathing down your neck, helped brilliantly by the cleverly panned instrumentation that makes for a very abstract feel. Not to be seen as a negative, ‘Toxic City’ is perhaps the most generic track on the album with Perry’s comparatively measured vocals sounding like the very best of Death Cab For Cutie. With piano sounds glistening, the luscious sounds of woodwind as well as warm and wistful guitar tones – what’s not to like?

D.D Dumbo’s inspirations reach far and wide, journeying across Africa, the Middle-East, Oriental Asia and the States, as well as influences from the likes of Dirty Projectors, Sting and David Byrne making themselves known throughout the album. Perry spent two to three months hunkered down in the 4AD’s in-house studio, meticulously creating Utopia Defeated, with no looping pedal, just creating each song piece-by-piece on his own. The outcome, is some of the most divine instrumentation and inventiveness you would have heard in a long time.
Iain Lauder

Website: dddumbo.com
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Twitter: twitter.com/dddumbo