In November, Martyn Pepperell attended the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo. While he was there, he witnessed the first performance in Japan by Fat Freddy’s Drop and spent some time with New Zealand’s sole academy participant, Chelsea Jade.

Taking it to Tokyo

Fat Freddys Drop performing at The Roots Commandment: Tokyo In Dub during the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, October 12 to November 15, 2014

WaterColours at the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, October 12 to November 15, 2014 // Dan Wilton/Red Bull Content Pool // P-20141111-00168 // Usage for editorial use only // Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information. //

Fat Freddys Drop performing at The Roots Commandment: Tokyo In Dub during the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, October 12 to November 15, 2014

Fat Freddys Drop performing at The Roots Commandment: Tokyo In Dub during the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, October 12 to November 15, 2014
Fat Freddys Drop per­form­ing at The Roots Com­mand­ment: Tokyo In Dub dur­ing the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, Octo­ber 12 to Novem­ber 15, 2014

Fat Freddy’s Drop, live at Unit, Tokyo, 9/11/2014

At just past 1am on Sunday 9 Novem­ber, Fat Freddy’s Drop, our very own hi-tech soul stal­warts, took to the stage inside Tokyo’s sprawl­ing Unit base­ment ven­ue. Some­what sur­pris­ingly, it was the first time they’d ever per­formed in Japan. While in a sense they had a lot to prove, they were also greeted by an incred­ibly warm response from the crowd of Japan­ese music lov­ers (and, of course, the occa­sion­al cluster of home­sick expats).

As a band, FFD can some­times be guilty of tak­ing quite a while to warm up. On this par­tic­u­lar night, how­ever, they didn’t mince bars, chords or words. Over an hour and a half, the band worked through a set that included ‘Mid­night Maraud­ers’, ‘Slings and Arrows’, ‘Black­bird’, ‘Roady’ and sev­er­al oth­er songs. The brass sec­tion was tight and emo­tion­al. DJ Fitch­ie and Dobie Blaze’s drum pro­gram­ming and syn­thes­iser work was power­ful and com­pel­ling. Jet­lag Johnson’s gui­tar work flickered with just the right amount of reg­gae skank. Joe Dukie’s vocal per­form­ance was mas­ter­ful. His voice singing out son­or­ous and clear, every recog­nis­able (or even not so recog­nis­able) hook and verse met with an enthu­si­ast­ic cheer.

If you haven’t been pay­ing atten­tion prop­erly the last few years, it’s easy to think of FFD as a lazy-limbed dub-soul band. As the set pro­gressed, it became clear how much the heart­beat rhythms and energy of clas­sic house and techno are a part of what they do. Sure, song sec­tions were exten­ded to add drama, but it was about build­ing intens­ity as opposed to jam­ming, and when those pulsing kick drums hit, the crowd response was always explos­ive. Trom­bon­ist Hopepa and host MC Slave’s respect­ive dance and free­style rap routines were equally effect­ive. It was a cel­eb­rat­ory moment, one sure to be repeated again in the future.

 

Introducing… Chelsea Jade

WaterColours at the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, October 12 to November 15, 2014 // Dan Wilton/Red Bull Content Pool // P-20141111-00168 // Usage for editorial use only // Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information. //

Formerly known as Water­col­ours, Auck­land-based elec­tron­ic singer/songwriter Chelsea Jade has in recent times emerged as one of the most prom­ising new young music­al tal­ents in New Zea­l­and. Dur­ing 2014, she per­formed across the coun­try, toured through the USA, spent time record­ing in New York with pro­du­cer Justyn Pil­brow, and was selec­ted to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo.

With her new EP Beacons, Chelsea and Justyn encase her poet­ic­ally writ­ten lyr­ics and aching vocal melod­ies inside frost­bit­ten min­im­al­ist­ic instru­ment­a­tion. In the pro­cess, they take the washed-out dream-pop sound often asso­ci­ated with acts like Cocteau Twins and marry it to a chunki­er frame. The res­ult is a sound that draws com­par­is­ons to the music of Glass­er and Beach House.

As this sug­gests, there is a def­in­ite art-house edge to the super­fi­cial aes­thet­ics of Chelsea’s music, and its visu­al present­a­tion (she’s a two-time art-school drop-out). After a few listens, what really cuts through are her pop-ready melod­ies and choruses.

If her record­ings con­nect with you, you simply must exper­i­ence Chelsea in the full flight of a live per­form­ance. Blessed with a nat­ur­al sense of theatre and drama, when she steps onto the stage, she cre­ates some­thing that’s immers­ive, chaot­ic, cap­tiv­at­ing and beautiful.