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

The Phoenix music scene generally stays underground. Sometimes – as a fan, anyway – it’s better that way since intimacy remains.

That, and they stay hungry, bringing the raw and the edge out through voice and instruments. Again better for fans than band members but …

Miniature Tigers got their start in the Sol Valley. Cute as they are the band shows themselves Tuesday, July 27 at the Rhythm Room, ripping through a set to celebrate the release of Fortress (Modern Art Records). It’s their second release as they delve further into the weird.

The Spinto Band, Roar and the perennially overlooked Kinch are all part of the bill. Show starts at 8pm. Tickets available at Stinkweeds, Hoodlums, Zia and Ticketweb.com, or at the door.

And dearly beloved locally, Snake! Snake! Snakes! (a copy editor’s nightmare that) got themselves a self-titled EP out. They’ll hit the Rhythm Room August 11. All ages, and they’re that type of band to appeal to grannies in the old folk’s home and ten-year-old rocking out at home.

Gospel Claws and Sister Cities get some serious set time that night on the RR’s small stage – reach out and touch someone!

(Check a listen to two songs from the EP here, and “The Mountain Fire” via Phoenix New Times)

So pop your ears open to the 28 bands you can hear from these free downloads. They’ll ALL be at the Wychwood Festival, June 4-6, with The Happy Mondays headlining.

“But Temple” you would say if anyone was reading this site yet, in our soft launch period (OK, there’s one reader I know of who isn’t writing for the site) that’s a newspaper site; how good can that shit be if it’s already in a rag? Good question. One, everyone has to start somewhere. 2. You haven’t heard of any of these bands so the rag is ahead of you. 3. They’re all unsigned and England’s Independent Newspaper along with the British Broadcasting Service (the infamous BBC that brought you John Peel Sessions and the Rock DJ wonder that was Alan Freeman (bless im)) just work differently than corporate speak ad-driven television media outlets stateside.

The author of this piece wrote about the experience of judging the bands that’ll appear at the festival. The judges listened to 70 acts straight-up live since they will be showcased live. They have to have chops, y’know? How can a person not be enthusiastic hearing newness? Sure, not all bands are going to rock your joints or the joint, but everyone knows good musicians go begging for a break with about equal frequency that a decades-old band tries to come back for some of that same spotlight time.

You’d think with everyone being buried in information and entertainment choices that new bands would have an easier time of it. Yes and no. There are more opportunities for someone to catch fire, to go viral. Yet there’s so much. Too much. It’s still just as hard to be heard.

(Update – Only 23 downloads of the 28 available)