mage credit: Jaxon Whittington
Actress (Darren Cunningham) returns with Dummy Corporation, a long-awaited new EP out on 11th November on Ninja Tune. Featuring Detroit-influenced lead single ‘Dream’ – an expertly layered, dance-floor ready crawler with a minimal 4×4 beat, hypnotic synth loop and a commanding vocal sample – and mesmerising 19-minute title track Dummy Corporation, the release places Actress firmly back in the centre of underground club culture. It marks the acclaimed electronic artist’s first solo music since the release of his 2020 album Karma & Desire which saw guest collaborations from Mercury Prize winner Sampha, Zsela and Aura T-09-The Guardian commented it “cements his place as one of the great poets of club culture”.
On ‘Dummy Corporation’ we see Actress – one of the preeminent and most singular voices in UK electronic music – enter a new chapter, traversing through digital snapshots of electronica and graffiti in which he explores the processes behind both the music and visual elements. “The overall idea is for this to be a demonstration of the process and the philosophical action art of creating modern-day electronic music” he comments. “I create these sketches, essentially like the fabrics, and I collage them together…once I see the picture it’s embellished further and the process repeats…”. It’s a piece of work shaped by varied fragments of Actress’ life, reflecting growing up in the advent of home computing, programming, cassette tapes and floppy discs.
As part of this new chapter, Actress will bring his acclaimed DJ sets to a selection of iconic clubs including Fabric alongside Mumdance, rRoxymore, DMX Crew, DeSchool with Octo Octa as part of ADE, Berlin’s RSO with Kai Campos (Mount Kimbie), Afrodeutsche and Kush Jones, Nista in Barcelona and Lux in Lisbon.
The announcement of ‘Dummy Corporation’ comes shortly after the release of the single “AZD SURF” – a collaboration with Mount Kimbie’s Kai Campos – which featured Actress’ unique, yet familiar, distorted elements, mixed in with Kai Campos’ hypnotic melodies.
Actress has recently featured in a Patta and Nike produced 4 part film by Mahaneela and Steve McQueen, soundtracked an installation with Actual Objects called Grey Interiors and remixed tracks for Joji, Perfume Genius, Tirzah, The Cinematic Orchestra, Soccer Mommy and Carmen Villain. 2020’s ‘Karma & Desire’ album was widely praised across the board, with praise from Pitchfork (included in their 41 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2020), FADER, Resident Advisor, Crack, Hypebeast, Consequence of Sound and The Guardian.
‘Dummy Corporation’ is out 11th November on Ninja Tune, with single “Dream” out today.
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