Friday, February 06, 2009

Fat Freddy's Drop

To and from work over the past week, I've been listening to a couple of CDs my good friend Adrian Hester recently sent my way. I have particularly been enjoying Based on a True Story, an album released in 2005 by Fat Freddy's Drop, a group out of Wellington, New Zealand, of all places. Wikipedia describes them as "a seven-piece roots/dub/reggae/jazz/soul band." My favorite song by far on the album is "Wandering Eye", a shorter version of which I've embedded below.


Not that I'm afflicted with a wandering eye, but it's been awhile since I've heard a song that speaks to me so well.

Hope you enjoy it, too!

-- CAV

PS: The following, by Ayn Rand, strikes me as particularly applicable here:
Psycho-epistemologically, the pattern of the response to music seems to be as follows: one perceives the music, one grasps the suggestion of a certain emotional state and, with one's sense of life serving as the criterion, one appraises this state as enjoyable or painful, desirable or undesirable, significant or negligible, according to whether it corresponds to or contradicts one's fundamental feeling about life. ("Art and Cognition," The Romantic Manifesto, 53.)
"Prison of Love", by Hepcat, falls into the same category as "Wandering Eye" for me.
Posted at

4 comments:

  1. Peter CresswellFebruary 10, 2009 6:10 PM

    Nothing astonishing about Wellington, New Zealand, Gus, apart from the wind -- oh, and all the politicians. ;^)

    Good to see NZ's local music speaks so well so far afield. :-)

    Cheers,
    Peter Cresswell
    Auckland, New Zealand

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  2. Gus Van HornFebruary 10, 2009 7:02 PM

    Thanks, Peter. I was mildly surprised, but only because of the idiom of the group.

    Pleasant surprise, that!

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  3. Peter CresswellFebruary 10, 2009 8:14 PM

    Very true.

    There's some good stuff coming out of those graduates of the Welington Jazz schools you can hear now in bands like Little Bushman, The Black Seeds, Trinity Roots ... and Fat Freddy's Drop.

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  4. Gus Van HornFebruary 10, 2009 9:32 PM

    Thanks for the further recommendations!

    ReplyDelete