Fat Freddy’s Drop: Blackbird
Published:
COMPOSERS: Fat Freddy’s Drop
LABELS: The Drop
ALBUM TITLE: Fat Freddy’s Drop: Blackbird
WORKS: Blackbird
PERFORMER: Fat Freddy’s Drop
CATALOGUE NO: DRP019CD
Blackbird features classic reggae, ska and dub. Still, many of their sweet music’s charms come from the digital depths of Chris Faiumu’s MPC2000XL, including virtual ‘drums’ and often ‘bass’, but they stay closer to roots with their ‘mid-range vintage music equipment’ – woozy trombone, swathes of trumpet/sax, Iain Gordon’s style-whore noodling on analogue keyboards and Jetlag Johnson’s choppy, skanking rhythm guitar. Their star is velvet-voiced crooner Dallas Tamaira whose way with the phrase ‘Never Moving’ shows his effortless musicality.
Jon Lusk