Dummy's debut full-length Mandatory Enjoyment arrived in late 2021, becoming one of the year’s sleeper hits. Coming out of lockdown, the band spent two years touring in support of the record, and it is this transformational experience that pulses through Free Energy, the exhilarating follow-up to Mandatory Enjoyment. A creatively restless band, Dummy (Ewell: drums, synths, bass; Maatman: vocals, synths, organ; O'Dell: vocals, guitar, organ; Trainor: guitar, bass, synths) wanted to get harder, dancier, more psychedelic for their next record. This meant applying explorative potentials of electronic textures to the elemental qualities of rock i.e. more vocal loops, sampling, more crazy rhythms, and playful synths - but make those samples of Trainor’s guitar, let Maatman sing bolder, experiment with using cold mechanical elements in warm and sparkly ways, and lean harder into traditional-yet-still-awesome forms of rock guitar experimentation like feedback. The result is a record that celebrates music’s ability to move the body, whether that be through a teeth-rattling wall of MBV-esque noise, a sticky pop chorus, or a joyous drum machine or, if you’re Dummy, maybe all of them in the same song. For fans of Seefeel, Water From Your Eyes, Cindy Lee, Can, Lewsberg, Aphex Twin, Portishead, Mandy Indiana and Stereolab, Vanishing Twin.