Fat Freddy’s Drop self-define their music as reggae or soul or reggae jazz or power funk or …. but ever since a friend turned me onto them a couple of years ago, I’ve just thought of them as wildly weird, with more than a hint of wonderful. This New Zealand group is not easy to identify. Their sound doesn’t always hit you right but come at it again in a different space, it can both challenge your definition of music and go down like a tall, iced cocktail on the hottest day of the year.
Few people have heard of Fat Freddy’s Drop, more people would enjoy life if they had.
You’ll get a chance with the Sept. 28 release (on their own “The Drop” label) of their live show at the 5,000 capacity Roundhouse in London. They’ll also tour next year, including rare stops in the United States.
FFD songs are stretchy and never more then when played live. They wander in the way an organic jam band veers from one thought to the other; one beat launches from a half-formed idea, does a back flip and alights on a floating trumpet note. Lyrics aren’t prominent, they merely fold inside the aural envelope. Layers of horns make this changeling music.
It’s music that no doubt would enhance any drugs already leisurely infusing your body but it’s also mood-changing all by itself. With “Live At the Roundhouse” you get the live full effect of this traveling from Point A to Point B, via D, X, N, and Z – across trance, jazz, soul, new age, 70s porn soundtrack ecstatic moments and 80s electronica echo. Six tracks make up the 80 minutes of this album: “The Camel”, “The Raft”, “Flashback”, “Pull The Catch”, “The Nod” and “Shiverman.”
The songs spans the seven-member band’s existence – to this point they’ve played together 11 years, only releasing a first album after six years of playing. “Roundhouse” is their third since then, following 2005′s Based On A True Story and Dr Boondigga and The Big BW released in 2009. Knowing where in that existence the song pulls from only adds a slight depth; it’s not completely necessary..
“One of the upsides of being far away from the action and not having to deal with the weight of a strong musical history is that we don’t feel we have to stick to one particular style or approach,” said on-stage music conductor DJ Fitchie, in a news release.
Check in at about the 6:50 mark of “Pull The Catch” where a new sound rips into the air. It’s Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue” previously unparalleled bassline on steroids. The crunch come as a crest to what’s gone before because by that point, the drums, trombone and trumpet-filled landscape has been as gently rolling as the green hills of New Zealand’s North island.
“Shiverman” has the best vocal imagery of the album. Bringing up different calming images – the sea, empty space, it encourages listeners to “shake that Shiverman loose” before running at uncontrolled, leg- and arm-wheeling speed into a wall of sound. It also wouldn’t be out of place at any high profile nightclub – boys in duotone Polos, girls in shiny short skirts.
“Flashback” is the most laid back soulful number on an ocean of an album that moves from hurricane force whitecaps to the trickle of water falling back into the next slow wave (often both in the space of 30 seconds). Dallas Tamaira’s voice washes over the 12-minute version of this love song that still seems as if it has more to say: “There’s something natural in the way you touch me. It’s a feeling that I can’t describe. There’s something mystic in the soul connection, something magic in your misty eyes.”
Breathe easy, music lovers. Breathe easy.
The Band
DJ Fitchie aka Chris Faiumu – Music Production Center
Joe Dukie aka Dallas Tamaira – Vocals and lyrics
Do bie Blaze aka Iain Gordon – Keys and Synth
Jetlag Johnson aka Tehimana Kerr – Guitar
Tony Chang aka Toby Laing – Trumpet
Hopepa aka Joe Lindsay – Trombone and Tuba,
Chopper Reedz aka Scott Towers – Saxophone
