Fat Freddys Drop: Dr Boondigga & the Big BW

The New Zealand soul collective became world-beaters on the back of their 2005 debut, Based on a True Story, and live shows lauded for their improvisation and intensity. This second album has the same infectious mix of retro-soul and dub reggae, heavy with brass and fronted by the silky falsetto of Dallas Tamaira. The default style remains the relaxed, loping groove, as on "Pull the Catch", but "Shiverman" is a 10-minute, trance-style thriller, and there are excursions into hip-hop and jazz on "The Nod", while the embattled positivism on "Wild Wind" casts them as an antipodean Massive Attack.