Droppin' funk in the Mount

Fat Freddy's Drop will be showcasing new album Bays. Photo/Warren Buckland

Fat Freddy's Drop are playing at Mount Maunganui in a couple of weeks, as it rolls out its summer tour of the country.

The band released its fourth studio album, Bays, in October, following the worldwide success of Blackbird in 2013, and is blazing a path internationally.

Just back from a tour of Europe, the New Zealand- based seven-piece is back to offer up Bays to fans here at home.

The 9-track LP was recorded at the band's studio in Kilbirnie, Wellington, a former 1950s HMV vinyl pressing plant.

The predominantly studio- written album draws on the lexicon of genres that have come to epitomise the band's sound.

Opening with the slow burn funk of Wairunga Blues, the album journeys through a hybrid of reggae, jazz with techno rhythms underpinning Freddy's signature horns and Joe Dukie's soulful and introspective vocal, arriving finally on the crooked blues jam of Novak.

"It's been a more creative process writing this album in the studio rather than recording songs which have been well road-tested," Freddy's vocalist Joe Dukie said.