The Zoo Twilight series of concerts wrapped up last Saturday with heavy-hitting New Zealand soul/dub band Fat Freddy’s Drop.
Introduced as ’the seven-headed monster’, with MC Slave, this eight-piece became a musical force twisting soul, rock and club sounds through a dub filter for an appreciative audience.
With perfect weather the capacity crowd settled on picnic blankets for the low-key support DJ/singer Oscar Key Sung. But when main act, Fat Freddy’s Drop, stepped on stage, the finger food was forgotten and the audience got grooving under a half moon.
Fat Freddy’s Drop’s physical presence is marked by a lively trombone, trumpet and saxophone brass section. The top-hat wearing performers also included guitarists, keyboardists, and two vocalists with the backbone of beats provided by electronic drummer, DJ Fitchie.
The band’s first set started with ‘Blackbird’ the namesake of their latest album from 2013. What began to the strains of a gentle melodica grew quickly into a lumbering, deep dub set. The reverb-effected brass section set up a giddy soul fusion of reggae, dub and ska. Members drifted off as if in a trance as lead singer Joe Dukie’s incantation, ‘Got to make it to the higher ground’, looped out among the audience.
A feature of this band was each member taking turns to rile the audience with quirky and passionate displays of stagecraft. These antics were exemplified by harp, trombone and occasional euphonium player, Hopepa, stripping down to tennis shorts and cutting lose with physical gyrations across the whole stage during the extended disco set.
The mid-concert point was marked by the jaunting rhythms of ‘Roady’, which asked the question: ‘How do you keep skankin through the darkness to the light?’ The song drifted from dub reggae and big-band brass bursts into hip-hop grooves. But the (at times) excessive cross-genre explorations paid off among the patrons.
There was, however, no singular sound, as the band merged soul, rock and reggae, mashing things to a pitch and then stripping back the reverb into a jazz finale. The brass section swapped solos then the clean finish displayed a tight, experienced group of musicians, leaving the crowd exhilarated. It was triumphantly the blues/soul mix – the bands signature – bringing to mind the New Orleans smooth sounds of The Neville Brothers. The bands lyrical content was not a feature, and they were at their best when shifting between big reverb effects into an old-school, big-band feel.
This band are in their element working a large stage and will no doubt represent New Zealand well at numerous international festivals touring through Europe’s summer from mid-year.
Bringing to a close this Zoo Twilight concert series, Fat Freddy’s Drop didn’t let down the human team serving up Melbourne Zoo’s residents some deep dark, clubbing dub. Until next year!
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Fat Freddy’s Drop with Oscar Key Sung
Zoo Twilights, Melbourne Zoo
www.zoo.org.au
Mixed events 24 January – 8 March
