Fat Freddy's Drop - Hope For A Generation

This one's for my brothers! This import EP is rare, out-of-print and increasingly hard to find.


There's a warmth in the New Zealand dub sound that's notably absent from the more paranoid-sounding grooves emerging from the UK. Maybe it's the drugs.

The seven-piece New Zealand dub crew Fat Freddy's Drop is named after a brand of LSD popular in the Kiwi club scene in the late '90s. Each tab was stamped with an image of Fat Freddy's Cat, a character from Gilbert Shelton's counterculture cartoon strip, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. If FFD's sound is anything to go by, it must have delivered one forceful trip.


Unlike many dub outfits, this Maori-Samoan-pakeha collective developed its sound live on stage rather than in a studio. Decknician and sampler Mu, vocalist Dallas Tamaira, keyboard player Iain Gordon, guitarist Tehimana Kerr, and horn section Warren Maxwell, Jo Lindsay and Toby Laing have roots in the city's impro jazz scene as well as the reggae circuit.

Chops honed, their live reputation took off in 2004. One poll voted them NZ's best live band and they've earned the Hollywood seal of approval by entertaining the glitterati at the Cannes Film Festival. Director Peter Jackson also booked them to play the wrap party for his recently completed remake of King Kong.

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