Courtesy of the musical group Fat Freddy's Drop
New Zealand is a country whose population is widely and embracingly sympathetic to reggae music. It is also a country that I regard as one with a highly innovative culture, and Fat Freddy's Drop is an example of that. The group does reggae with a quintessentially New Zealand twist.
Describing the band, National Public Radio host Guy Raz said, "Take the swagger of Jamaican dub, throw in a little Memphis soul and send it halfway down the globe, and what comes back? The band Fat Freddy’s Drop."[55] The band has been categorised under many genres, and members say many of those genres helped shape their musical style: delta blues, jazz, dub, soul, techno, and contemporary rhythm and blues
...skanking urban Pacific roots, soul, dub, jazz and electronica into hypnotic and thunderous grooves. No two Freddy’s gigs are the same as the midnight marauders improvise and jam each song into mystic supernovas of future funk, fakes and freaky sidesteps ...
The band’s name comes from the name of the cat in the United States cult comic strip The fabulous furry freak brothers. (It was also the name of a popular type of acid in Wellington in the early to mid-1990s).
From the
Guardian
[Fat Freddy's Drop] have an unusual yet euphonic sound, sometimes known as Aotearoa roots music. Their first album, Based on a True Story, went nine times platinum and remained in New Zealand’s top 40 charts for over two years after its release in 2005. Outside of the country, however, many of their tracks are considered too long and challenging for mainstream radio, making the group’s success both intriguing and impressive.
And the last of the praise from a great
review ...
You also won’t hear another band roll out a shuffle – the track ‘Silver and Gold’ – quite like The Drop. And here is where the genius of FFD and the remarkable interaction of the band lies – after playing this many gigs (innumerable European and Australian tours) each member seems to work ego-less and uncannily as a part of the ‘seven headed soul monster’, intuitively shaping the sound. Telepathy abounds! It is a very ‘black’ music consciousness – working as part of a greater community, the opposite mid-set of the ‘white’ thing of ego-battle and cult of the individual. (Pardon my glaring generalisation here – but you get my drift…).
You can listen to the complete album,
Based on a True Story, here.
Kick back and enjoy the smooth sounds of Fat Freddy's Drop ...