Mike Fabulous (The Black Seeds/Lord Echo) and Lawrence Arabia are two of New Zealand's young musical titans.
The pair have been quietly collaborating since 2009 - their first and only physical correspondence being two CDs of instrumental soul/funk/lounge/pop that Mike sent from Dunedin to Lawrence's mum's place in Christchurch. Lawrence then went into his childhood bedroom and composed lyrics and melodies over four of the instrumentals within about two hours of receiving the package. The following day in Dunedin, Mike Fabulous received an email containing these early efforts.
Over the following two years, interrupted by all manner of world tours, Fabulous and Arabia exchanged further ideas down the wires, and even met up once to record together.
“Unlimited Buffet” is the fruits of their labours and contains flawless harmonies, interjections of brass and smatterings of searing guitar, all underpinned by an elastic and funky rhythm section. It's a buzz-funk extravaganza with playful vocals of the ilk that James Milne is known for, featuring many falsetto refrains and awkward lyrical come-ons. Think of a wild unique mixture of Shuggie Otis meets the Beatles with a NZ twist. The band is a true NZ allstar band featuring Toby Laing and Joe Lindsay of Fat Freddy’s Drop, Lucien Johnson of The Black Seeds and Julien Dyne (BBE) on drums.