Blackbird Returns

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of their 2013 album Blackbird, New Zealand Māori soul-dub-funk octet Fat Freddy’s Drop have put together this collection of remixes from that decade-old material, reworked by a number of both Kiwi and international DJ-producers.

I usually prefer my Freddy tracks digitally unadulterated, but this lot of new mixes offers up a number of intriguing alternative realities that will certainly please most Freddy devotees.

The most essential newer versions include a standout percolating 2015 remix of ‘Soldier’ from German collective Jazzanova; the dub-laden title-track remixed by fellow German producer Marcus Worgull; a spacey echoing version of ‘Mother Mother’ from Dutch producer Feiertag; and a pumping ‘Bare Bones Dub’ by Berlin-based DJ Philippa, which restructures Fat Freddy singer Dallas Tamaira’s mesmerising soul vocals into a fresh slab of funkiness.

But some remixes work better than others and UK DJ-producer Nightmares on Wax’s reworking of ‘Russia’ is surprisingly a bit ho-hum. Sheffield house-techno producer Yarni’s neo-soul ‘Silver & Gold (featuring Liv East)’ doesn’t really improve on the original, and hip-hop/rap versions of ‘Clean the House’ and ‘Blackbird’ unfortunately don’t break any interesting new ground.

All up, a mixed but worthy bag of reimagined FFD classics.