RIP Chris Faiumu aka Mu (Fat Freddy's Drop)

 

Chris Faiumu aka Mu. Photo: Sarah Hunter

Very sad news to wake up to -  Mu of Fat Freddy's Drop has died, RNZ reports. 

The band have posted this message: "Our talismanic founding member, production maestro, selector and brother, Chris Ta’aloga Faiumu aka DJ MU aka Fitchie has unexpectedly passed away. This is a seismic shift in our world. Sending alofa to the Faiumu & Duckworth aiga, and to MU’s wider aiga of friends and fans worldwide. We ask please that you all respect everyone’s privacy during this difficult time. Hold tight.

Ua maligi loimata i le maua mai o le tala ua fa i lagi lau malaga Chris Ta’aloga Faiumu … DJ MU … Fitchie. O suafa uma nei na lauīloa ai oe ma ōu galuega fa’aofoofogia i tagata fai musika uma i Aotearoa ma le lalolagi atoa. Ua goto le fetū āo, peāu o le vasa, ua motusia le pale sa matou tiu ai Brother ina ua e fai malaga. Alofa atu mo aiga Faiumu ma Duckworth, atoa ma aiga o lo’o tagi mai i ala. Ia manuia lau malaga Chris. 

Tears flowed on receiving word that your journey had taken you to the heavens Chris … DJ MU … Fitchie. These were all the titles you were famously known by for your miraculous works to all music makers of Aotearoa and the whole world. The star by which we navigated across the sea has gone and the crowns of flowers that adorned our heads are forever broken since you journeyed Brother. Much love for the Faiumu and Duckworth families, as well as those family members who can only cry from afar. May your journey be blessed Chris."

Steve Shaw wrote in 2002: "Mu himself is a long established DJ. He’s also a well-respected producer and a key figure in the Wellington music scene. Mu started off Fat Freddy’s Drop along with vocalist Dallas Tamaira, just the two of them at first. They recorded a track ['Hope'] for Radio Active’s 10th anniversary CD [in 1998] and ended up totally immersed in the sound. They started doing a lot of gigs, using a sampler to produce the drums and bass. It all started working so they added Iain Gordon from Ebb on keys and guitarist Tehi Mana Kerr – a classically trained player who was performing mainly rock."

I remember going down to Welli in the early 2000s to do a Dub Asylum gig at Bar Bodega, with Trip To The Moon. The gig had a small audience, and was pretty low key. After we played and packed down our gear, Mu and a few of the Fat Freddys guys wandered in and Mu started setting up his MPC, he was a friendly, chatty guy. About an hour later they started playing and the place was absolutely packed. This is before they even had an album out. 

Fat Freddy's Drop released their latest album Slo Mo in October last year, putting out the vinyl first.

Mu told RNZ's Tony Stamp "I've been buying records for 40-odd years. I'm the youngest of five kids, I inherited my sister's great little soul collection. My brothers were more into Santana and Neil Young. "When I hit intermediate I started on a cassette collection, which by the time I finished high school in the late '80s, turned into vinyl. I think the very first record I ever bought was Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. That's where it all kicked off." 

Fat Freddy's Drop first toured Europe and UK in 2003, there's a doco made in 2023 of it. The band went back there almost every summer since, and very few folk here really get how big they were in Europe and UK. For example, in 2014, they sold out London's Alexandra Palace. Thats a 10,000 person venue. 

Mu (Audioculture profile)

Fat Freddy's Drop (Audioculture profile)

Watch: 2004 documentary on Wellington jazz scene

"Documentary on Wellington Jjzz scene featuring Jonathan Crayford, Anthony Donaldson, Leila Adu, Lucien Johnson and Jeff Henderson. Directed by Simone Audissou during the 2004 Jazz Festival in Wellington, which was curated by Anthony Donaldson. All about the joy of group improvisation, which persists in Wellington to this day." 

New video from Crystal Chen

 

Cool new video from local soul singer Crystal Chen for her recent single Kiss it better, album out later this year. 

Pre-order Limited Edition Vinyl of Crystal Chen's debut album "You Can Call Me CC" from 28.06.2025 on https://crystal-chen.com

Chinatown punk wars doco

Watched this cool doco on the rise of LA punk bands playing in Chinese restaurants, once all the regular venues had banned them. Wild.

"In the late 1970s, two Chinese restaurants became the unlikely epicenter of L.A.’s burgeoning punk scene. The emerging music form featured fast-paced songs and hard-edged melodies with anti-capitalist messaging. As told through interviews with John Doe (X), Alice Bag (The Bags), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag, OFF!), and Martin Wong (Save Music in Chinatown), and featuring music from current performers such as The Linda Lindas and more."

Unzipped - Prime Sex original soundtrack from 1992

Unzipped - Prime Sex was a NZ TV documentary that decided to get some fresh local talent to record some originals to use. Ive digitised my CD copy and made a wee playlist. 

The lineup featured Supergroove in the same year they released their debut single, Shihad before they had made their first album, Ngaire, These Wilding Ways (ex Screaming Meemees) and a wicked hiphop crew from Wellington called Rough Opinion. Rappers were K.O.S. 163, who later helmed Footsouljahs, and RIQ, who changed his name to The Field Style Orator, then Tha Feelstyle.  

This track is their only released recording, but they toured with Supergroove and made their name known on the live front. I remember them opening a few times for my band Hallelujah Picassos, and absolutely ripping up there stage. They were awesome and hard as hell. 

New Sola Rosa EP out now

Well worth a listen, out on vinyl and digital. 

Sly and the Family Stone album cuts mixtape

You know all of Sly and the Family Stone's big hits, they are timeless classics. Their albums also offer up a magnificently groovy deep dive into what it is to be funky. I have been thinking about doing this mix for a while - I've remember picking up 5 of their albums on CD plus their Greatest Hits from Borders Books back in the late 90s when Borders arrived here in New Zealand, think they were all like $10 each, absolute bargain.

Much respect to Sly Stone. Go watch Questlove's amazing doco on Sly Stone. Here's some background on it from one of the producers, Joseph Patel.

Also there's a great interview by Jay Mumford with their drummer Greg Errico - Mumford did a series of interviews in 2019 with drummers for Red Bull, so if you ever wondered about the drummers for Funkadelic, War, Tower of Power, Ohio Players or BT Express, go have a read, it's an incredible archive.  Questlove gets interviewed too if you want his backstory.

Errico had a cool career post-Sly as a session musician and producer, on albums by The Pointer Sisters, Betty Davis, and  Lee Oskar (harmonica player for War). He also toured as drummer for David Bowie, Weather Report, and collaborated with Santana, and Larry Graham. 

My favourite Lee Oskar tune is Haunted House, one that Cian (Conch/Ulo) put me onto. Oskar's self-titled solo debut came out in 1976 and featured a number of members of War backing him, plus Greg Errico on several tracks. Errico also produced most of the album and co-wrote several tunes, and held down the producer's seat for Oskar's second solo effort, Before The Rain (1978), which features Haunted House. Errico produced some of Oskar's later records too. 

Oskar left his native Denmark at 18, landing in New York to make it big, with his harmonica in his pocket. Following his success with War (out in LA), he later developed his own line of harmonicas.

My copy of Lee Oskar's debut album has still got the price sticker on it from the record store I got it from, Open Mind Music in San Francisco, a store Cian worked in when he lived there in the early 2000s.

Tracks: Trip to your heart / Dynamite / Soul clappin’ / Love City / Colour me true / Plastic Jim / Are you ready / I cannot make it / I’m an animal / Chicken / Into my own thing / Advice / Higher / Only one way out of this mess / Don’t burn baby / Harmony / Underdog / Turn me loose / If this room could talk / Loose booty / The same thing (makes you laugh, makes you cry) / Thankful n’ thoughtful

Bill's Records (short documentary)

 

This is a lovely watch... "74 year old Bill Wisener had owned Bills Records in Dallas, Texas for 46 years. His shop was once the largest independent record store in the country. 

Director Chuck Przybyl and his crew had filmed with Bill from 2014 to 2019. This short film was created from 2015 to 2017. Bill passed away in January of 2020 as we were filming the yet to be released documentary Love and Records about Bill, his life and his legacy. Featuring music by the band Michelles, from the album Dark as a Daisy.

New tunes from Pains People

 Some beautiful, bleepy, bouncy electronic from Pains People, take a listen.

New Dub Asylum EP out now

Here's a new EP from me, some uptempo reggae dancehall, cumbia vibes with a mad dash of electronica. Made a wee video for it below...