

While the motorik momentum and washed-out textures of their earlier releases may have positioned Dummy as contenders in the shoegaze-revival rat race, with their third album, the LA quartet takes the offramp into a different stream of ’90s underground culture. The clattering drum ’n’ bass-inspired breaks of “April Limousine” unsubtly announce Do You Love the Color of the Sky?’s rhythm-first approach, as the album re-situates Emma Maatman and Nathan O’Dell’s daydreamy melodies against a shapeshifting backdrop of trip-hop atmosphere, rave energy, and otherworldly post-rocktronica. Each track here is scientifically engineered to expand the mind while moving the feet: “Full Spectrum Dominance” drives its Madchester groove into an undertow of distorted guitars and subaquatic synths; “Song of Mana” strikes an uncanny balance between ambient bliss and manic beats. But while it’s easy to be dazzled by the elaborate sound design and fleet-footed propulsion, the album’s impact is ultimately as emotional as it is physical, no more profoundly than on the funky Stereolab strut “N of 1,” which gradually intensifies until you’re having an out-of-body experience in the middle of the dance floor. Our Favorite Moment: About four minutes into the frisky “Squeaky Wheel,” when the band locks into a glorious kosmische-rock outro and rides it into the sun.