A little bit of cool

I have a very odd tradition when it comes to friends and music…I ask all of my friends to give me either one song or one artist that I don’t know to listen to. This way I get to hear their musical taste and I get to find new music that I may never of listened to without their help. My most recent gift was that of Fat Freddy's Drop; a seven-piece band from Wellington, New Zealand, whose musical style has been characterised as any combination of dub, reggae, soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, and techno. Originally a jam band formed in the late 1990s by musicians from other bands in Wellington, Fat Freddy’s Drop gradually became its members' sole focus. Band members continued playing with their other respective groups—The Black Seeds, TrinityRoots, Bongmaster, and others—for much of their 11-year career. Fat Freddy’s Drop are known for their improvised live performances; songs on their studio albums are versions refined over years of playing them live in New Zealand, and on tour abroad.

The group gained international recognition in 2003 after their single "Midnight Marauders" was re-distributed by record labels and DJs in Germany. The group has toured Europe nearly every year since then. The first studio album by Fat Freddy’s Drop, Based on a True Story which has just been uploaded into my ipod, was the first independently-distributed album to reach first place in New Zealand record sales directly after release in 2005, and is the highest-selling album by a national artist in the country's history. Based on a True Story won Best Album at the New Zealand Music Awards the same year, and remained on the top 40 New Zealand sales chart for over two years, establishing them as one of the most successful contemporary bands in the island nation.

You can also find their music and clips on youtube if you fancy having a listen, I recommend “What the world without soul” and “wandering eye”. So now I have 3 of their album’s and are very impressed by the music each has offered me; as each is a little different than the one that precedes it.

Happy listening.