D.D Dumbo
“A cerebral and complex blend including ‘80s jazz funk and ‘70s art pop that can thrill with its deft musicality”
D.D Dumbo - aka Oliver Perry – lives in a room attached to an old horse stables on the outskirts of the small city Castlemaine, one and a half hours north of Melbourne. “The building is owned by a couple who keep their garden tools in it,” says Perry. “But there’s one room that’s insulated and semi-functional.” The space also doubles as Perry’s studio. “There’s definitely some hermit vibes,” he says of the solitary set-up.
That D.D Dumbo’s fantastical debut album, Utopia Defeated, can be traced to a single, spartan room, seems especially perverse. Across ten songs, Utopia Defeated conjures a vivid, wide-eyed musical landscape teeming with nervous energy and exotic evocations of the world at large. Backed by skittering percussion, the signature elastic bounce of Perry’s 12- string guitar, and a fanciful quiver of obtuse sounds, Utopia Defeated hinges on Perry’s expressive voice, and the dissonance of an artist compelled to question his position in the natural world.