Fat Freddys Drop - Beaver on the Beats

Fat Freddys Drop – Beyond Easy Skanking

November 8, 2015 by Beaver on the Beats Leave a Comment

Every album so far delivered by Fat Freddys Drop has brilliantly captured and showcased the unique blends of soul, jazz, funk, R&B, reggae and dub that New Zealand music is known and loved for. Those albums have also captured the spirit and sounds of the epic live Fat Freddys Drop journeys – from which the group built their grass-roots following and ultimate success, way back since their beginnings in the late 90s.

Fat Freddys Drop live in Brisbane - Blackbird Tour 2013

Fat Freddys Drop live at the Tivoli, Australia

In many ways the new album Bays repeats that Fat Freddys history, in others not.

Bays (2015)

More so than ever before, Bays captures Fat Freddys Drop creating music in the studio rather than in the live arena. Like always, studio-style includes recording equipment and techniques at their most superior (analogue of course), pressed to sweet vinyl. The gentle, soulful voice of Dallas Tamaira is the only one you’ll find on this FFD album, consistently soothing you throughout. The subtle, perfectly-placed horn lines of Toby Laing, Joe Lindsay and Scott Towers are still present. So too are the living guitar and keyboard sounds of Tehimana Kerr and Iain Gordon.

And yes Bays definitely delivers familiar doses of soul, funk, R&B and feel-good, easy skanking within its ten tracks. But this time around you’ll get a heavier-than-ever-before dose of techno rhythms in the mix. For some people those sounds will be welcome, for others they might bring discomfort. Either way, Fat Freddys Drop remain as true as always to the expression of their own evolution, independent of and unconstrained by the expectations of a label or others.

Love Bays or not. Take it or leave it. Whatever you do, at least try it.

I tried and took – ie. went to my local record store and bought it for my Forever-After Collection. And super-surprisingly, it was the epic techno-heavy journey of track 8 on Bays (“Cortina Motors”) that finally convinced me to do so. Producer and MPC genius Chris “Mu” Faiumu (who donated the base track) and the rest of Fat Freddys Drop have here achieved the unthinkable for me: made the experience of listening to techno rhythms an enjoyable and body-moving one.

Fat Freddys Drop concert - WOMADelaide 2014

Mu with Fat Freddys Drop live at WOMADelaide 2014

The killer groove of the album’s ninth and final track “Novak”, cemented my decision without doubt that I’d be a lot poorer if I didn’t have Bays in my music collection.

Check out these (mp3 only) samples of those two all-convincing tracks.

Fat Freddys Drop – “Cortina Motors” – Bays

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Fat Freddys Drop – “Novak” – Bays

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Buy the whole of Bays direct from Fat Freddys Drop here.

And be sure to find the live experience where you can. That’s generally where the most Fat Freddys Drop magic happens. Peeps around the world get their chance soon with upcoming tours happening in Aotearoa / New Zealand, Australia, the U.K. and Europe.

Filed Under: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fat Freddys Drop Tagged With: bays, cortina motors, fat freddys drop, ffd, music, new album, new zealand, novak

Myele Manzanza: New Zealand Music Aesthetics

April 27, 2015 by Beaver on the Beats Leave a Comment

Except for the reformation of Trinity Roots and what a handful of other New Zealand music artists like Myele Manzanza, Fat Freddys Drop, Electric Wire Hustle and Ladi 6 are up to, these days I’m more out of touch with New Zealand’s music scene than I used to be.

Trinity Roots live concert Australia 2015

Trinity Roots: Citizen Tour 2015

The Sound

When I was on the pulse during the past decade and more, I always thought Aotearoa (New Zealand) was a musical gem undiscovered (to their loss) by most of the world beyond Australia.

For small South Pacific islands distant from so much of the world, there seemed to be a disproportionately high number of New Zealand music artists blending flavours of soul, jazz, reggae and beats to create chilled, spacious, smooth, feel-right music with an inexplicably distinctive (and unique) New Zealand sound. I couldn’t work it out except to guess that its stunningly dominant natural environment played some part.

Myele Manzanza on The Sounds

During my recent interview with “afro-elastic soul” artist Myele Manzanza, I asked him about that sound; and to share any home-grown insights into the evolution of New Zealand music throughout his lifetime – which included years of drumming and composing with Electric Wire Hustle and working on numerous solo and collaborative projects with fellow New Zealand (and international) artists.

Check out Myele’s response with sample sounds from some of the players in that musical evolution…

Myele Manzanza: .

x.x

“New Zealand music out to a wider world audience”

“I think as far as the era of New Zealand music you’re referring to, in order for that to happen, I guess the thing that really broke down the door was Fat Freddys Drop – as far as getting New Zealand music out to a wider world audience. I have to take my hat off to them because of what they did and the level they did it at. I don’t think anyone of that era has gotten to the level of where Fat Freddys Drop got to.

Fat Freddys Drop

“a new vanguard”

You could maybe throw in Lorde, who’s stupendously big. She’s of a new vanguard/league/generation. Her success is incredible. There must be some element of influence of what’s happened in New Zealand music over the past 10 years on what Lorde does, but I don’t really bring her into this era of New Zealand music that you’re referring to. Even though it’s beats and soul, its a different thing.

“that sound”

As far as to how Ladi 6, Electric Wire Hustle or Fat Freddys Drop got here and got to that sound…when I was 14 or 15, Trinity Roots and The Black Seeds were coming to prominence (Trinity Roots reached their peak and then disbanded for some time). The Black Seeds and Fat Freddys Drop were still on their scent, but were in the community so I kind of grew up around that sound.

It might also trace back to Che Fu – he had a very big impact.

Trinity Roots

Trinity Roots- ‘Egos’ – Home, Land and Sea (2004)

Fat Freddys Drop- ‘Roady (feat. Ladi 6 & P Digsss)’ – Based On A True Story (2005)

Ladi 6- ‘Walk Right Up’ – Time Is Not Much (2008)

Che Fu- ‘Fade-Away’ – Navigator (2002)

“Once Bob Marley hit…”

There’s obviously a very big reggae thing in New Zealand.

Once Bob Marley hit, and I think he performed in New Zealand in the early 80‘s [1979], that was a big cultural turning point; a. because his influence was so big anyway, but; b. when he came and performed he really got to know the local culture. I think there was a connection for him too because Waitangi Day (the day a treaty of agreement was signed between Maoris and the colonial population) is on 6 February which also happened to be Bob Marley’s birthday.

For whatever reason, and particular Maori and Pacific Island culture in New Zealand, people were very much drawn to Bob Marley, his message and his sound.

Maybe there’s an ‘island thing’ too where the geography relates to the style. There’s something that can be related there and got taken up. There’s a reggae thing that’s been happening in New Zealand music for decades now. Trinity Roots and Fat Freddys Drop came out of that but they also had their jazz, soul, electro, dub and techno influences.

“the J Dilla-thing in New Zealand music”

It might be fair to say that whilst Electric Wire Hustle had those same influences, [we] were maybe the first to champion the J Dilla-thing in New Zealand music; that rhythmic aesthetic; that sound and style of contemporary left-field hip-hop/soul instrumentals. We latched onto that, and it might have given us a point of difference. Ladi 6 was in there as well. So were a number of other artists. Isaac Aesili – part of a group now called Sorceress (previously called Funkommunity) was very much in that scene.

It’s interesting thinking about that timeline and the history of that – and will be interesting to see what happens next.

Electric Wire Hustle- ‘This World (Feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow)’ – Electric Wire Hustle (2009)

“what happens next”

Obviously Lorde is the now. It’s undeniable that whatever will come after Lorde in mainstream New Zealand music will be largely influenced by her.

But for me I think my next step is maybe taking those influences but maybe going further into the jazz thing. By “jazz” I mean improvised music that’s fluid and can move and shift as performed in the moment in real time, as opposed to pre-programmed drum machine stuff.

Myele Manzanza- ‘Elvin’s Brew’ – One (2013)

Even though that’s very much a big part of what I do, what I think I’ll be working on over the next few years of my life will be a synthesis of that – finding my line between the programmed electronic-thing and the improvised jazz/soul, real person, real time-thing and trying to make that my sound.

As far as where the rest of New Zealand music is headed, only time will tell.”

~~~~~~~~

More of The Sound

Start here if you want to check out more sounds and images of Myele Manzanza, The Eclectic and other Aotearoa New Zealand artists:

Myele Manzanza & The Eclectic (including father Sam Manzanza and Aotearoan soul divas Rachel Fraser & Lisa Tomlins) performing live at WOMADelaide 2015 last month…

…or click the artist’s name for more live videos, photos and sample tracks by Myele Manzanza, Trinity Roots, Fat Freddys Drop and Electric Wire Hustle.

…and stay tuned, because there’ll always be more New Zealand music artists added to Beaver’s world.

Filed Under: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Electric Wire Hustle, Fat Freddys Drop, Myele Manzanza, Trinity Roots Tagged With: bob marley, electric wire hustle, fat freddys drop, interview, ladi 6, myele manzanza, new zealand, new zealand music, the eclectic, Trinity Roots

The WOMADelaide Experience – What Everyone Wants

March 19, 2014 by Beaver on the Beats 2 Comments

Everyone I know who experiences WOMADelaide festival, wants to experience it again. Everyone I know who’s heard about the WOMADelaide experience, wants to have it.

That’s because it’s one of the world’s best musical festivals, and Australia’s very best. Fundamentally for the quality of music and its friendly festival people, but for so many other reasons too.

So declares I anyway – and anyone I’ve ever spoken with about it who’s in the know.

I’ve just experienced WOMADelaide 2014 with about 90,000 other people. Over four days I was reminded over and over again (as they probably were too), of all the reasons we were counting down the days to WOMADelaide 2014 since the end of WOMADelaide 2013.

The People Will Come

Artists love playing at WOMADelaide. They are treated well, and valued, as artists should be valued. They get to play their music (and sell CDs on-site) to friendly, musically-open-minded and appreciative crowds of people who might otherwise never be exposed to it.

Artists not playing at WOMADelaide, who don’t usually take themselves to festivals or gigs unless they are their own, love to go to this festival to hear its global artists.

Femi Kuti

Hanggai

The friendly people of Adelaide love to go to their home festival – set up base-camp under an old, shady Botanic Park tree – and enjoy the festival with family and friends. Some of them have been to every WOMADelaide since 1992.

Parents love to go because they can relax and enjoy the festival knowing their kids are happy and safe somewhere nearby on-site.

Lovers of diverse music who live in other parts of Australia, love to make the music pilgrimage to WOMADelaide whenever possible.

NGAIIRE

Femi Kuti & The Positive Force

Sounds of the Planet

“It doesn’t matter which artists are in the line-up. Turn up to the festival any ole year and you’ll hear amazing artists from all over the world.”

My musician friend who “hates most music”, said that to me about WOMADelaide many years ago. At every WOMADelaide I’ve been to since, his words about the festival’s line-up have rung absolutely true.

WOMADelaide 2014 saw about 500 very diverse artists, representing 20+ countries, performing across 7 festival stages.

All of those artists were good, most were fantastic and many were phenomenal.

: Femi Kuti

: Ngaiire @ WOMADelaide 2014

: Thelma Plum

: The Positive Force

: Rachid Taha

: Mokoomba

: The Brown Hornet

: La Chiva Gantiva

: Dub Inc

: Fat Freddys Drop

: Hanggai

: Red Baraat

: Buika live @ WOMADelaide 2014

: Carminho

: Red Baraat

: Roberto Fonseca

: La Chiva Gantiva

: Hiatus Kaiyote

: Fat Freddys Drop

: Rachid Taha

: Femi Kuti & The Positve Force

: Ramses Rodriguez

: Quantic @ WOMADelaide 2014

: Red Baraat

: La Chiva Gantiva

Australia Represented

Australian music that I absolutely love, is rare to find. Last year I found two musical diamonds in Ngaiire and Hiatus Kaiyote.

WOMAdelaide programmed both of them at this year’s festival – and their shows were amongst the best I saw.

Hiatus Kaiyote

Ngaiire

Hiatus Kaiyote

A live Hiatus Kaiyote experience amongst the trees at Botanic Park…it was all a bit magical really.

Hiatus Kaiyote

The spunky Nai Palm on guitar and vocals, smiling all through the set – plus her incredibly talented band members – put a huge and long-lasting smile on my face too.

Nai Palm – Hiatus Kaiyote

Hiatus Kaiyote

Hiatus Kaiyote’s music, along with Cuba’s Roberto Fonseca’s music, was the most inspiring and happiness-inducing music of all the music I heard at WOMADelaide 2014.

Videos of Hiatus Kaiyote’s one and only WOMADelaide show here…

Hiatus Kaiyote is supporting Queen Erykah Badu at her Australian shows in a few weeks. Lucky me, I’ll be there in Melbourne at what I predict could be the most special live show of 2014 for me 🙂 .

NGAIIRE

At her WOMADelaide 2014 show Papua New Guinean born, Australian based NGAIIRE, was exactly like NGAIIRE always seems to be – absolutely mesmerizing to hear and see.

Ngaire @ WOMADelaide 2014

She was accompanied greatly by her skilful band, with a slightly different line-up to usual.

Check out this video of a new Ngaiire track played live for the 1st time at her WOMADelaide shows…

Sounds of the Rest of the Planet

Aotearoa (New Zealand) – Fat Freddys Drop

I’ve always said that as great as Fat Freddys Drop‘s studio recordings are, their live shows are the ultimate experience of this band.

Fat Freddys Drop

Well, I left Fat Freddys Drop’s WOMADelaide show before it finished. And not because I had anywhere else to be. I just wasn’t feeling moved or inspired where I was.

Video of their festival show here. Maybe you’ll be inspired…

China – Hanggai

Hanggai’s music was probably the most foreign and novel to me at WOMADelaide 2014: rock mixed with traditional Mongolian music. The live experience of this band was a totally unique and entertaining one.

Hanggai

Check out Hanggai’s WOMADelaide show on video here…

Colombia/Belgium – La Chiva Gantiva

It’s always a treat for me to hear the sounds of traditional Colombian music like cumbia and chirimia in the mix with the likes of funk and afro-beat. Also to get a dose of the distinctively joyous Colombian energy put out by los Colombianos in La Chiva Gantiva – as well as that of their Flemish, Belgian and Vietnamese band members.

La Chiva Gantiva

La Chiva Gantiva wins the WOMADelaide 2014 prize for crowd participation.

La Chiva Gantiva

Videos (of their more subdued tracks) from both La Chiva Gantiva’s WOMADelaide shows here…

Cuba – Roberto Fonseca

Roberto Fonseca and his phenomenal accompanying band – which included Malian kora and tama player Cherif Soumano – were the musical jewel of the WOMADelaide crown for me.

Once upon a time, Roberto Fonseca was a young piano player with Ibrahim Ferrer’s Orchestra. Now and for many years past, he’s been an established artist in his own right. In these days Robert Fonseca’s still young -and is creating stunning Latin Jazz music that explores sounds of traditional African roots music and electronica.

Roberto Fonseca

Both the music and the musicianship of this group were an absolute joy to experience live.

Cherif Soumano

Yandy Martinez

Ramses Rodriguez

Joel Hierrezuleo

Roberto Fonseca’s album Yo was one I made sure I bought home with me from WOMADelaide.

Glimpses of the magic of Roberto Fonseca’s WOMADelaide shows here on video…

France – Dub Inc

A french fusion of ever-so-danceable sounds of dub, reggae, dancehall, ska, ragga, hip-hop, Arab and African music.

Dub Inc

The really unique thing about this band is the voices and vocal combinations of Hakim “Bouchkour” Meridja and Aurélien “Komlan” Zohou.

Dub Inc

See what I’m talking about here on these videos from Dub Inc’s WOMADelaide 2014 shows…

Nigeria – Femi Kuti & The Positive Force

Femi Kuti needs no description. Nor does his music.

Hearing Femi Kuti play saxophone took me somewhere heavenly.

His supporting band and dancers The Positive Force, were as incredible to hear and watch as you’d expect them to be.

Femi Kuti & The Positive Force

Videos of Femi Kuti’s one and only WOMADelaide show here. Check out the chops of the Positive Force band towards the end of the first one…

Spain/Guinea – Buika

Contemporary sounds rooted strongly in traditional flamenco – sung and played exquisitely.

Buika was absolutely divine.

Buika

The guitarist accompanying Buika is amongst that group of phenomenal artists I heard at the festival.

Videos from one of Buika’s two WOMADelaide shows here…

Sample tracks (mp3 only) off Buika’s album En Mi Piel here too…

Mi Niña Lola – Buika – En Mi Piel

Somos (Featuring Chucho Valdes) – Buika – En Mi Piel

USA – Arrested Development

You all know who Arrested Development are and what they do. Hip-hop of the inspiring kind.

Arrested Development

Well, the line-up of the group might have changed. But I think they’re still doing what they’ve always done, in style. With new music and a new album coming.

Arrested Development

The live Arrested Development experience is one to have. Check out a video here…

USA – Red Baraat

Red Baraat blends North Indian Bhangra rhythms with the delicious sounds of jazz, brass-funk and hip-hop.

This awesome New York-based group was musically one of my favourites at WOMADelaide 2014.

Red Baraat

Their 5-piece-strong brass section was an extra special delight for my musical senses.

Red Baraat

Videos from each of Red Baraat’s WOMADelaide 2014 shows here…

Red Baraat’s 2nd album Shruggy Ji is also in my bag of music goodies that I bought home from the festival.

Zimbabwe – Mokoomba

Mokoomba fuses traditional sounds from African music with more modern ones, some of them even disco-like.

Mokoomba

Have a listen to the vocals of this group here on video. They’re sung in traditional Tonga language (unknown to most, even in Africa).

Other corners of the world represented live at WOMADelaide 2014 were Algeria, Bulgaria, India, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Reunion Island, Tunisia and Scotland.

Rachid Taha (Algeria)

Carminho (Portugal)

DJs Represented

Towards the end of your WOMADelaide nights, when you’re feeling happy and revitalized from all the amazing live music you’ve just experienced and want to keep dancing, you can.

Just head to the Speakers Corner stage and find yourself a spot amongst the trees. There you can have your last dance of the festival day to DJs spinning tasty tunes.

WOMAdelaide 2014 had some of the world’s best DJs on offer…

1. DJ Yoda (UK)

2. DJ Muro (Japan)

3. Awesome Tapes From Africa (USA) – DJ Brian Shimkovitz with his samples from 4000+ rare and random cassette tape recordings collected from Africa for more than a decade. You can check it out on his blog.

4. Will Holland (aka Quantic) (UK)

Will Holland makes some of my favourite music in the world.

Will Holland (aka Quantic) @ WOMADelaide 2014

Quantic DJ Set @ WOMADelaide 2014

Will Holland (aka Quantic)

In his WOMADelaide set he delivered a mix of old and new Quantic concoctions from his large collection of musical productions of the funk, soul and Latin flavoured kinds. So for me it was possibly the best DJ set I’ve ever experienced.

Check out a video snippet of a new concoction here…

[You can read more about Will Holland’s diverse musical projects, including Ondatrópica, and hear sample Quantic tracks, here.]

More Than Music

Incredible music, a friendly community of people and a green, open-air festival space. WOMADelaide has those fundamental festival ingredients.

It’s got lots more too – all a part of making it the positive festival experience it is.

Amongst the music and dancing there are activities of all sorts to be found around the festival site…

Find your favourite festival artists cooking up their traditional home dishes at Taste The World – giving a talk – or a music or dance workshop.

The Positive Force dance workshop

Listen to environmental talks and panel discussions at The Planet Talks.
Interact with a roving theatre performer.
Join in or watch the Parade.
Lay on the grass in the Pines and watch a visual installation of the best dancers from around the world in slow motion.

Slow Dancing (After Dark)

Get creative at an art workshop.
Eat delicious foods, drinks delightful wines, and browse artisan markets at the Global Village.
Nourish your weary body with a massage at The Healing Village.
Or entertain yourself and others in any other ways you want…

Importantly too, festival runnings are professional and smooth. Shows start on time. Set change-overs are efficient. Lighting and sound are quality. Stage emcees do a great job.

The wonderful experience of all that is WOMADelaide, comes at a comparatively cheap festival ticket price too. At its most expensive (post early-bird rates) the cost of a 4 day pass for 2014 was just over $300.

WOMADelaide Bliss

I think I’m on solid ground for declaring WOMADelaide to be one of the world’s best, and Australia’s very best music festival. Don’t you?

The ‘best’ or not (it’s subjective, I know), one thing is for sure. People who have the WOMADelaide experience get happier with each passing festival hour. Somewhere during those 4 festival days, music and festival bliss kicks in.

What do you say peoples? If you’ve already had yourself the WOMADelaide experience, did I get this declaration right? If you haven’t had it yet, surely you want it now?

We’ve only got about 50.5 weeks to wait until WOMADelaide 2015 !

Filed Under: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Arrested Development, Australia, Belgium, Buika, China, Cuba, Dub Inc, England, Fat Freddys Drop, Fela, Femi & Seun Kuti, France, Guinea, Hanggai, Hiatus Kaiyote, La Chiva Gantiva, Mokoomba, Ngaiire, Ngaiire, Nigeria, North America (USA), Papua New Guinea, Quantic / Will Holland, Red Baraat, Roberto Fonseca, Spain, WOMADelaide, Zimbabwe Tagged With: femi kuti, hiatus kaiyote, ngaiire, roberto fonseca, womad, womadelaide, womadelaide 2014

Fat Freddys Drop Blackbird Album – As Unique As FFD Always

September 15, 2013 by Beaver on the Beats Leave a Comment

I maintain that the Fat Freddys Drop live experiences are where it’s best at, for me.

Fat Freddys Drop - Live - Tivoli - Brisbane - Blackbird Tour - 2013 - Beaver on the Beats

Live @ The Tivoli, Brisbane, 2013

All Fat Freddys Drop music though – live or recorded – makes me feel good when I hear it. Simple.

Their new album Blackbird, which I got hold of last week, is no exception. I know when I play it that the cruisy, soulful, jazzy, funky, bluesy, electro, dubbed out sounds will make me feel good.

Fat Freddys Drop music sounds like none other in the world. That’s pretty special in this day of our long musical history. Don’t you think?

Fat Freddys Drop - Blackbird CD - www.beaveronthebeats.com

Blackbird (2013) – Fat Freddys Drop

Here are some sample listening tracks from Blackbird in MP3 format (+ find 1 more here). Blackbird and other Fat Freddys Drop albums are easy to buy in real music stores, or on-line from most places in the world.

Silver and Gold – Blackbird (2013)

Bohannon – Blackbird (2013)

Filed Under: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fat Freddys Drop Tagged With: blackbird, bohannon, fat freddys drop, new zealand music, silver and gold

The MP3 Tragedy

September 9, 2013 by Beaver on the Beats 2 Comments

Sound quality matters. Ever so much.

The movement from the sweet, tasty sounds of vinyl…

…to not-anywhere-near-as-amazing, but still okay sounding CD’s…

…to unbearable MP3 versions & their loss of sounds…

01 Blackbird – MP3 – Blackbird (2013) – Fat Freddys Drop

…is a tragedy of epic proportions.

Don’t you think so?

Or am I going on about nothing?

Don’t know what I’m talking about?

Or I’m right, but just need to shut up about it, accept that it’s happening/happened and get on with things in our new world of musical dissemination and listening?

Tell me, please. I need to know.

What’s the future trajectory for the sound quality of our music?

Is it hopeless for me to have hope? To try and resist the ‘inevitable’? Are we doomed for a future where we have to buy our music from and store it on a computer? In shitty MP3 format? Once upon a time I heard that technology was supposed to give us better things than we had before. Well tragically for all of us, it hasn’t turned out that way for music.

5 Awesome Reasons to Buy Your Music on Vinyl or CD

1. Hearing all the sounds in the music that the artist created for you to hear.

Fat Freddys Drop recording

2. Enjoying the album’s visual and written arts – and supporting the visual artists & authors creating it. Front Cover. Back Cover. Booklet. Inserts. & any other extra bits the artist might include for you.

3. Supporting the music artists trying to make a living from the valuable contributions they are making to the goodness in the world.

4. If buying it from your local independent music store, supporting both those music store owners and music in general.

5. Enjoying the sensory delights of having the vinyl or cd in your hot little hands, smelling it, touching it, seeing it, putting it into your record or CD player and waiting in anticipation for the sounds of music.

Any reasons I missed? Number 1 (sound) is enough to give MP3 a complete miss anyway. Isn’t it?

Increase your listening pleasure. Don’t miss out on hearing every single sound the artist who created the music wanted you to hear. Choose vinyl or CD where you can, over shitty MP3 versions. I will, for as long as I still can anyway (in hope that it’s forever).

Filed Under: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fat Freddys Drop, Music Sound Quality, Music Stores Tagged With: buy cds, buy vinyl, mp3, sound quality, vinyl, vinyl music

Fat Freddys Drop & Their Blackbird Live @ The Tivoli

September 3, 2013 by Beaver on the Beats Leave a Comment

Ten years ago I went to a gig in Sydney where I found some of the sweetest, tastiest jazzy/dubby/electronic music I’ve ever heard live. In a moment of excitement about my great musical find I told my friend Sammy “Fat Freddys Drop is the best band in the world”. He has laughed at me about that statement ever since – and would never let me take it back.

I don’t actually think Fat Freddys Drop is the best band in the world. I was silly for having said that any 1 band is the best band in the world.

But I do think that a live musical journey with Fat Freddys Drop is always a pretty special one to go on.

I went to their gig at The Tivoli in Brisbane on the weekend- part of the Australian tour promoting the release of their new album Blackbird.

Fat Freddys Drop at the Tivoli

I must have had 10+ live Fat Freddys Drop experiences by now. I can’t say that The Tivoli gig was the the best of them.

I can say the things I loved about The Tivoli gig are the same things that I have always loved about Fat Freddys Drop:

Their marathon-long live songs – where the music changes through that long journey, they jam out, and there are lots of awesome solos by each of the quality musicians that they are.

The minimalist vocals of Joe Dukie.

The subtle horn lines in the right places- and the even better horn solos.

The fat bass lines DJ Fitchie creates. I love most things he does musically, but I can still never help wishing for that special energy that I think comes from having a live bass and drums.

At each Fat Freddys Drop gig the the same song will nearly always sound different.

The smooth way Fat Freddys Drop blend jazz, dub, soul, blues, electronica, funk, groove & hip hop.

With distinctive Pacific Island Aotearoa sounds…like so many other great contemporary artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand making fusion music from those genres.

All copies of Blackbird sold out at the gig so I can’t tell you anything about it yet sorry :(. I was so relieved though that Fat Freddys Drop actually had good old fashioned CDs for sale at their gig.

You can even buy it on sweet sounding vinyl.

For now I have a video of Blackbird, their opening song at The Tivoli gig + some mp3 version (sorry for you) sample listening tracks off previous Fat Freddys Drop albums.

Dr Boondigga & The Big BW (2009)

Shiverman – Fat Freddys Drop – Dr Boondigga & The Big BW (2009)

Based On A True Story (2005)

Ray Ray – Fat Freddys Drop – Based On A True Story (2005)

Live at the Matterhorn - Fat Freddys Drop - 2001

Live At The Matterhorn (2001)

Rain– Fat Freddys Drop – Live At The Matterhorn (2001)

and finally this awesome track from Fat Freddys Drop earlier days…

Midnight Marauders – Fat Freddys Drop – Dub Conspiracy Sampler

Ten years of live Fat Freddys Drop experiences and I keep on going back for more. That’s because I wanna hear their sweet, live marathon tracks where they jam out. I suppose that’s why Live at the Matterhorn is still my favourite Fat Freddys Drop album – a 70 minute CD of only 4 tracks. We’ll see if Blackbird changes that once I get my hands on it.

Filed Under: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fat Freddys Drop Tagged With: based on a true story, blackbird, dr boondigga & the big bw, fat freddys drop, live at the matterhorn

Fat Freddys Drop – “Cortina Motors” – Bays

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Fat Freddys Drop – “Novak” – Bays

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The Sound

Myele Manzanza on The Sounds

Myele Manzanza: .

Trinity Roots- ‘Egos’ – Home, Land and Sea (2004)

Fat Freddys Drop- ‘Roady (feat. Ladi 6 & P Digsss)’ – Based On A True Story (2005)

Ladi 6- ‘Walk Right Up’ – Time Is Not Much (2008)

Che Fu- ‘Fade-Away’ – Navigator (2002)

Electric Wire Hustle- ‘This World (Feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow)’ – Electric Wire Hustle (2009)

Myele Manzanza- ‘Elvin’s Brew’ – One (2013)

More of The Sound

The People Will Come

Sounds of the Planet

Australia Represented

Sounds of the Rest of the Planet

Aotearoa (New Zealand) – Fat Freddys Drop

China – Hanggai

Colombia/Belgium – La Chiva Gantiva

Cuba – Roberto Fonseca

France – Dub Inc

Nigeria – Femi Kuti & The Positive Force

Spain/Guinea – Buika

USA – Arrested Development

USA – Red Baraat

Zimbabwe – Mokoomba

DJs Represented

More Than Music

WOMADelaide Bliss

5 Awesome Reasons to Buy Your Music on Vinyl or CD

Shiverman – Fat Freddys Drop – Dr Boondigga & The Big BW (2009)

music sublime

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